Indonesia Gets $45 Million From Australia to Address Climate Change

Antara News, Thursday, December 9, 2010

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Australia Thursday announced an allocation of $45 million to Indonesia as part of Australia`s $599 million fast start climate change financing.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said that Australia welcomed Indonesia`s strong leadership on climate change and the opportunity to build on Australia`s long-standing cooperation with Indonesia on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) and climate change adaptation.

"Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation - which accounts for 18 per cent of global emissions and more than 60% of Indonesia`s total emissions in 2005 - is critical to achieving a global outcome on climate change," Rudd said as quoted on the official website of the Australian embassy in Jakarta, Thursday.

New funding of $30 million will extend support for our demonstration work in Kalimantan and accelerate joint work on Indonesia`s National Carbon Accounting System, taking Australia`s total support for Indonesia`s REDD+ efforts to $100 million.

Speaking at the United Nations Climate Change negotiations in Cancun, the Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Minister, Greg Combet, said that developing a national carbon accounting system is critical to providing credible evidence of emissions reductions.

"This will be a crucial part of our cooperation as it will enable Indonesia to monitor and measure the success of its efforts. Our existing support for Indonesia`s efforts positions Australia well to be a lead partner in the establishment of a new independent institution for forest measurement, reporting and verification in Indonesia," Minister Combet said.

Building on this strong cooperation on REDD+, Australia today also accepted an invitation from Indonesia to join the Indonesia REDD+ Partnership. This is an important opportunity for Australia to further support practical activities and work closely with other countries and multilateral organisations to coordinate support for Indonesia`s REDD+ efforts.

"We are pleased to accept the invitation to join the Indonesia REDD+ Partnership and this builds on the strong bilateral cooperation we launched together in 2008," Minister Rudd said.

New funding of $15 million will support Indonesia`s efforts to adapt to climate change, including to increase understanding of likely climate change impacts, and support the development and implementation of local adaptation responses.

"Indonesia`s many islands are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and this funding recognizes how critical the issue is," said Minister Combet.

This additional support for Indonesia is part of Australia`s $599 million climate change fast-start funding which was announced in June 2010.