The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has extended US$100 million in loans to help Indonesia reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve resistance to climate change.
“The funding will help the government in its efforts to maintain or increase economic growth in environmentally friendly ways, lower greenhouse gas emissions and make adaptation efforts an integral part of the government’s national development strategy,” ADB Country Director for Indonesia Jon D. Lindborg said in a press statement issued on Thursday.
Jon said Indonesia had made a lot reforms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, develop renewable energy sources and incorporate climate change mitigation efforts in its development activities.
Indonesia had committed itself to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent of normal condition without intervention in 2020 and to increase the target of greenhouse gas emissions reduction to 40 percent with the help of international agencies, he said.
“The 26 percent reduction will require an investment of billions of dollars between now and 2020,” he said.
The results of research conducted by the Manila-based bank had shown that greenhouse emission conditions in Indonesia had remained unchanged whereas, without intervention, climate change in Indonesia would cause a loss of 0.7 percent to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product at the end of the century.
The research results also showed Indonesia was producing more than half of the greenhouse gas emissions in the Southeast Asian region because of forest logging and conversion of peat lands into agricultural farms.
“Rising demand for power in Indonesia will also increase greenhouse gas emissions. Energy may become the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in 2030,” he said.
