Although developed nations had pledged $30 billion for a climate change fund established at the 2009 Copenhagen summit, it remains unclear how big of a share Indonesia stands to receive.
“We’d like to ask for the public’s patience concerning the Green Climate Fund,” Rachmat Witoelar, Indonesia’s special envoy for climate change, said on Monday.
“I’m sure everyone would like to know how much Indonesia will get or how the mechanism works. However, there’s a glitch in the discussions. We’re still trying to define what ‘vulnerability’ means.”
The pledge for fast-track funding for 2010-12 was made by developed nations at the Copenhagen climate talks in 2009, aimed at financing emerging world adaptation and mitigation efforts.
The most vulnerable countries — including small island states and African countries — would be prioritized for funding.
Developed countries have also agreed to provide poorer states with $100 billion annually by 2020 to help them reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions.
The pledge was further bolstered at the recent Cancun climate change talks, where advanced economies agreed to submit their information on the resources they committed to provide in the Copenhagen Accord.
They also listed which developing countries could access these resources in the next three years.
The Cancun talks also saw parties agree to the establishment of a Green Climate Fund to allocate the $30 billion in aid. The mechanism would be governed by a board of 24 members representing both developed and developing nations.
However, Rachmat said the debate over who should be entitled to such funding rages on.
“It’s like opening a Pandora’s box,” he said. “If you define vulnerable countries as including all small island states, then Singapore would qualify for that category.”
“This is why we’re waiting for the debate to be decided at next year’s Durban [South Africa] climate talks, where [parties could] elaborate the definition of vulnerable countries, whether it should be based on per-capita income, geographical profile, location or some other factor.”
But Giorgio Budi Indarto, coordinator of the Civil Society Forum for Climate Justice, said the people should not worry about the money not being released or the Green Climate Fund not being set up, because the countries would be held accountable for the pledges they already made.
“However, in Indonesia’s case, we’re not a priority country for funding for adaptation efforts because the target countries fall into three categories: least-developed countries, small island states and African countries,” he said.
“We’re not a least-developed country. We also didn’t take part in the climate talks with other small island states, but as part of the G-77 countries. So if we want to fight to get the funding, it will still be a long way off for us.”
As for funding mitigation efforts, however, Giorgio said there were plenty of countries more than willing to help.
He cited Norway, which this year made a $1 billion agreement with Indonesia on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD Plus).
As part of that agreement, Indonesia has pledged a two-year moratorium — effective next month— on issuing new logging permits in peat and high conservation-value forests.
“If Indonesia really wants to lead, then we should really be serious about leading,” Giorgio said.
“We need to show other countries that we have what it takes — as a vulnerable country, we have it all here: we have forest issues, we have problems with coastal areas, we also have poor people.
“If our negotiators could point out those vulnerable positions of our country, then we would get all the help that we need.”
