Climate change in Indonesia is of particular significance, because its enormous coastal population is particularly at risk to

sea level rise Globally, sea levels are rising due to human-caused climate change. Between 1901 and 2018, the globally averaged sea level rose by , or 1–2 mm per year on average.IPCC, 2019Summary for Policymakers InIPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cry ...

. The livelihoods of many of Indonesians dependent on

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

mariculture Mariculture or marine farming is a specialized branch of aquaculture (which includes freshwater aquaculture) involving the cultivation of marine organisms for food and other animal products, in enclosed sections of the open ocean ( offshore mari ...

and

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

could be severely impacted by temperature, rainfall and other climatic changes. Some

environmental issues in Indonesia Environmental issues in Indonesia are associated with the country's high population density and rapid industrialisation, and they are often given a lower priority due to high poverty levels, and an under-resourced governance. Most large palm oi ...

such as the cutting of

mangrove forest Mangrove forests, also called mangrove swamps, mangrove thickets or mangals, are productive wetlands that occur in coastal intertidal zones. Mangrove forests grow mainly at tropical and subtropical latitudes because mangroves cannot withstand fr ...

s (i.e. in Java) to make room for fish farms further worsen the effects of climate change (i.e. sea level rise).

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

has been listed as the world's most vulnerable city to climate change. In 2019 Indonesia is estimated to have emitted 3.4% of world

greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and lar ...

: from

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

peatland A mire, peatland, or quagmire is a wetland area dominated by living peat-forming plants. Mires arise because of incomplete decomposition of organic matter, usually litter from vegetation, due to water-logging and subsequent anoxia. All types ...

fires, and

fossil fuel A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels m ...

Greenhouse gas emissions

Indonesia is the 5th heaviest cumulative emitter at over 100 Gt. Emissions for 2019 are estimated at 3.4% of the world total. Indonesia has been called the "most ignored emitter" that "could be the one that dooms the global climate." Coal in Indonesia is a big emitter, because the government subsidizes coal power. over 30 coal-fired power plants are planned or under construction, and corruption has been alleged.

Perusahaan Listrik Negara PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (Persero) ( 'State Electricity Company', abbreviated as PLN) is an Indonesian government-owned corporation which has a monopoly on electric power distribution in Indonesia and generates the majority of the country' ...

, the state electricity company, is in financial difficulties but, , intends to build more coal-fired power stations.

Impacts on the natural environment

Temperature and weather changes

Global

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

is expected to increase temperatures in Indonesia by 0.8 °C by 2030.

Sea level rise and land subsidence

Difference in sea level rise can differ seasonly during

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

s, where they may average higher in the northwest and lower in the southeast, as well as the variation in tectonic activity in the massive

archipelagic state An archipelagic state is an island country that consists of an archipelago. The designation is legally defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). In various conferences, The Bahamas, Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guine ...

. While the mean sea level rise globally was 3-10mm/year, the

subsidence Subsidence is a general term for downward vertical movement of the Earth's surface, which can be caused by both natural processes and human activities. Subsidence involves little or no horizontal movement, which distinguishes it from slope move ...

rate for Jakarta was around 75-100mm/year, making the relative rise in sea level nearly 10cm/year. Continued carbon emissions at the 2019 rate, in combination with unlicensed

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...

extraction, is predicted to immerse 95% of Northern Jakarta by 2050. Some studies have suggested that climate change induced sea level rise may be minimal compared to the rise induced by lack of water infrastructure and rapid urban development. The Indonesian government views land subsidence, mostly due to over extraction of groundwater, as the primary threat to Jakarta's infrastructure and development. Dutch urban planning is in large part to blame for the water crisis today as a consequence of canals built during the colonial era which intentionally subdivided the city, segregating indigenous people and Europeans, providing clean water access and infrastructure almost exclusively to European settlers. Due to the lack of access to clean water in Jakarta outside of wealthier communities, many locals have been pushed to extract groundwater without permits. Jakarta's growing population and rapid urban development has been eating away at the surrounding agriculture further destroying natural flood mitigation, such as forests, and polluting river systems relied on by predominantly poorer locals pushing said locals to rely on groundwater. In 2019, water pipes in Jakarta reached only sixty percent of the population. Despite this being a very pressing issue in the city, almost half of the local population does not know or have not been made aware of the correlation between land subsidence, their extraction and increased flooding making an organized approach to this issue much more difficult. The issue has persisted so long that Indonesia has confirmed the movement of their nation's capital, Jakarta, to a new city in

East Kalimantan East Kalimantan (Indonesian: ) is a province of Indonesia. Its territory comprises the eastern portion of Borneo. It had a population of about 3.03 million at the 2010 census (within the current boundary), 3.42 million at the 2015 census, and 3. ...

in the island of Borneo, citing the land subsidence issue as a primary reason. The movement of the capital to Borneo, in part, minimizes the effects of natural disasters due to its strategic location, but the rapid pace of the planned relocation may exacerbate environmental issues on the island in the near future, particularly biodiversity loss.

Impacts on people

Economic impacts

Agriculture

Changes in rainfall patterns are predicted to have an adverse impact on Indonesian agriculture, due to shorter rainy seasons. Indonesia experienced crop losses and adverse impacts to fisheries as a result of climate change as early as 2007.

Fishery

By 2020, climate change had impacted Indonesia's fishermen.

Mitigation and adaptation

Mitigation approaches

Joko Widodo at the opening ceremony of COP26 (10)

Coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

is expected to provide the majority of Indonesia's energy through 2025. Indonesia is one of the world’s biggest producers and exporters of coal. In order to keep its commitments to the Paris Agreement, Indonesia must stop building new coal plants, and stop burning coal by 2048. Indonesia’s first

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used Wind power, to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundre ...

opened in 2018, the 75MW Sidrap Wind Farm in

Sidenreng Rappang Regency Sidenreng Rappang Regency (the name is often abbreviated to "Sidrap") is a landlocked regency of South Sulawesi Province in Indonesia. It has an area of and had a population of 271,911 at the 2010 Census and 319,990 at the 2020 Census. Its capita ...

South Sulawesi South Sulawesi ( id, Sulawesi Selatan) is a province in the southern peninsula of Sulawesi. The Selayar Islands archipelago to the south of Sulawesi is also part of the province. The capital is Makassar. The province is bordered by Central Sula ...

. Indonesia announced it was unlikely to meet the 23%

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

by 2025 target set in the Paris Agreement. In 2020, "Indonesia will begin integrating the recommendations from its new Low Carbon Development Initiative into its 2020–2024 national development plan."

Mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...

protection and restoration will play an important role in meeting the goal of cutting

by over 43 percent by 2030.

Policies and legislation

In February 2020, it was announced that the

People's Consultative Assembly The People's Consultative Assembly of the Republic of Indonesia ( id, Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat Republik Indonesia, MPR-RI) is the legislative branch in Politics of Indonesia, Indonesia's political system. It is composed of the membe ...

is preparing its first

bill. Also in February 2020, proposed changes to environmental deregulation have raised new concerns, and could "allow illegal plantations and mines to whitewash their operations''."''

Society and culture

A 2019 survey by

YouGov YouGov is a British international Internet-based market research and data analytics firm, headquartered in the UK, with operations in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. In 2007, it acquired US company Polimetrix, and sinc ...

and the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

concluded that at 18%, Indonesia has "the biggest percentage of climate deniers, followed by

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

(16 percent) and the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

(13 percent)."

Climate education Climate change education (CCE) is education that aims to address and develop effective responses to climate change. It helps learners understand the causes and consequences of climate change, prepares them to live with the impacts of climate change ...

is not a part of the

school curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...

References

External links

Climate Action Tracker IndonesiaClimate Watch Indonesia
{{Indonesia topics Environmental issues in Indonesia

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...