Indonesia going green

Antara News, by Andi Abdussalam, Saturday, June 12, 2010 12:23 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - In an effort to create a clean and healthy environment and overcome climate change, the Indonesian government is implementing a green concept and called on various businesses to apply it as part of their attempt to achieve their emission reduction program by 26 percent by 2020.

"Development efforts in Indonesia must implement the Green Development or Green Economy concepts which are in essence friendliness to the environment," Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Radjasa said over the weekend.

He said Indonesia`s development efforts are facing three big challenges, namely food and energy sufficiency and provision of efficient energy supplies but to meet all these, development efforts must be carried out based on a green concept to balance economic growth with environmental conservation.

"Therefore, the Green Economy concept is suitable for application in Indonesia`s development projects," he said.

The minister made the remarks after attending the topping off of Grand Royal Panghegar Apartment which implemented the Green Economy concept in Bandung, West Java. On the occasion Hatta expressed his appreciation to the Grand Royal Pangegar owner for having implemented the concept.

"I will report it to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, about this," he said.

President Yudhoyono said on Thursday the government must prioritize green economic development strategy which is environment friendly in order to prevent ecosystem degradation that demands big rehabilitation cost. It must implement triple-track-plus-one economic strategy, namely pro growth, pro job, pro poor, plus pro environment.

Therefore, Indonesia will continue to develop a green economic concept in an effort to improve the welfare of its people and overcome the threat of climate change. "The green economy has become a kind of new economic ideology in the world in the 21st century," the President said.

Green economy is needed because the world today is facing a great challenge from climate change the impact of which is already being felt with the emergence of a number of crises in the world such as food, energy and water crises.

"Green economy is a life style in the world and in Indonesia, a system which does not exploit to the full extent the energy and natural resources," he said.

He said the environmental aspect must not be forgotten in the economic development, or otherwise the rehabilitation works to improve the damaged environment might reach 20 percent of the GDP.

"There is an interesting article, which writes that economic-driven national development which ignoring the environment, in the long term, will cost 20 percent of the GDP for rehabilitating damaged environment. We should be aware of that," he said.

Therefore, the green concept must be applied in carrying out various development programs, including the tourism, property development and the real sectors besides other sectors such as transportation.

Many business sectors have responded to the green concept. In the tourism sector, some hotels and aviation have implemented it.

The Indonesian National Air Carriers Association (INACA) has the "Green Energy" program to reduce gas emissions from airplanes. Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi said he supported the Green Energy campaign in the transportation sector, especially in air transportation, as it would help mitigate the impact of global warming.

"By applying the Green Energy concept, gas emission in Indonesia could be cut by up to 26 percent by 2020," Numberi said when talking on the sidelines of an INACA meeting. Every airline operator should contribute to the success of the program, he said.

INACA Chairman Emirsyah Satar, concurrently president director of Garuda Indonesia airways, said Garuda has officially become one of 15 airlines in the world that have joined the carbon offsetting effort. Aviation industry growth in Indonesia is now the third highest in the world after China and India, according to Satar.

Indonesia`s plan to reduce gas emissions by 26 percent until 2020 will cost around Rp400 trillion. "We hope not all of the funds will have to come from the government. The figure is dynamic or can still change," the secretary of the state minister for national development planning, Sjahrial Loetan, said meanwhile.

Some hotels have also followed suit. The Bali Hotels Association (BHA), a group of over 100 star-rated hotels in Bali held an environment workshop at Kuta`s Hard Rock Hotel, as a part of series to provide a new concept of green for everyone.

"The workshop contributes to BHA`s endeavors to furthermore educate and train its employees as part of its social responsibility to provide a better and cleaner future for all local communities", Gareth Warne, BHA Director of Environment, and GM of Nusa Lembongan Resort & Sail Sensations Catamaran, said in Denpasar, recently.

During eight lectures over 100 participants had been informed of practical hands on solutions on saving energy, water management, recycling, carbon offset, and green corporate social responsibility programs.

In the property sector, the office of the Ministry of People`s Housing is drawing a regulation on incentives for developers which support the green property development concept. "We are preparing it as part of our commitment to facing the global climate change challenge," Iskandar Saleh, secretary to the Minister for People?s Housing, said.

The government is also planning to provide certification for the buildings or housings built by developers who are able to apply the eco-green or green property concept.

In this case, the Jakarta Garden City (JGC) is determined to build 9,000 houses within 10-15 years ahead with the green property concept.

"We have strong determination to develop these houses with the green property concept in line with the appreciation we received from the international real estate federation (FIABCI) in Bali recently," said President Director of JGC Lim Seng Bin.

In the telecommunications sector, Telkomsel has also gone green. Telkomsel is a telecommunications operator which has the biggest number of go-green base transceiver stations (BTS), or 132 bts in Southeast Asia.

"Of the 132 units of BTS, some 20 BTS are already developed with the go-green concept, of which 14 BTS are using solar cells and six others using fuel cells," Regional General Manager Network Operation of Telkomsel for North Sumatra Moelqy Furqan said.