THE INFORMAL MINISTERIAL MEETING ON THE PREPARATION OF COP 13 AND CMP 3

 
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Rabu, 24 Oktober 2007
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STATEMENT
OF
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC INDONESIA
AT
THE INFORMAL MINISTERIAL MEETING
ON
 THE PREPARATION OF COP 13 AND CMP 3
THE PRESIDENTIAL PALACE, BOGOR
24TH OCTOBER 2007


Bismillaahirrahmaanirrahiim,

Excellencies Ministers,

Distinguished Delegates,

The Executive Secretary of UNFCCC Representatives,

Ladies and Gentlemen,
 
I am very pleased to welcome all of you here at the Presidential Palace in Bogor. This Bogor Presidential Palace has been witness to a great deal of history. It was here APEC Leaders in 1994 agreed on the Bogor Goals to have a free and open trade and investment in the Asia Pasific by 2020. It was here the Bogor Informal Meeting – the so called “the cocktail party� – were held to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Cambodia. It was here a few months ago Sunni and Shiite Muslim Leaders from around the world met to promote reconciliation in Iraq.
 
I hope that you too will find inspiration as well as perspiration here in the Informal Ministerial Meeting on the Preparation of COP 13 and CMP 3.
 
Let me take this opportunity to convey my thanks to the Executive Secretary of UNFCCC for his assistance in convening this important meeting and to the Kingdom of Norway for its valuable support.
 
I also thank the distinguished ministers and their representative for taking part in the two days deliberations in Bogor. I have great expectations that you will achieve the objective of this meeting, to build the basis for decisions on a process to be initiated by COP 13, the so-called “Bali Road-Map�.
 
The world counts on your success, and on our ability to think outside the box and to work together to tackle the issue of our time: climate change.
 
The politics of climate change today is very different from the Kyoto days. Today, world public opinion is much more focused, much more galvanized, and much more demanding for action. In fact, I asked my staff to Google “climate change� last night, and he found 96.7 million items in the internet, and counting. Today, green and clean technology has improved greatly, for energy, for industry, for our work place and our homes. Today, the private sectors, including the multinational, are much involved in the cause of green, low carbon economy. Today there is a greater political will on the part of Governments to do something more and something different and something globally. And today, we have much greater scientific knowledge about climate change, especially the trends, the risks and the projections, all of which informs us that we are urgently racing against time to save our planet.
 
That is why we rejoice at the decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared in two equal parts between the intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (AL) Gore Jr.
 
Both have done so much to build up public consciousness of human made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to attain climate stability.
 
The debate of whether humans are responsible for climate change is now over with the finding of Fourth Report of the IPCC this year. There is no excuse for each and every one of us to now address this issue decisively at local, regional and international levels.
 
What the public demand is for concrete and firm action not only within the scope of the first commitment period of the Protocol, but more importantly, further beyond 2012. We must be able to work out positive outcomes in Bali. We must be able to deliver decisions that will form the basis for negotiations toward a post 2012 agreement, or Bali Road-Map. This will form the starting point for future concerted global action on climate change.
 
At the same time, we must ensure that these outcomes will not jeopardize efforts at socio-economic development. In order to achieve sustainable development, the task of environmental protection can and must complement the task of socio-economic development, including poverty alleviation. If we have understood something since Kyoto, it is that we can protect the environment while also ensuring energy security and economic growth – if only we can develop the right technology and the right policy.

We are heartened that the High-Level Event on Climate Change held last September in New York has done well to rally political will and determination among world leaders to pursue concrete actions to this end.
 
We must accept the scientific fact that in the long term we can only slow, stop and reverse greenhouse gas emissions if both developed and developing countries get into act. Mitigation of climate change, therefore, is to be borne by all nations throughout the world.
 
Considering that the developed countries are so far ahead of their developing counterparts, and in the light of the principle of “common but differentiated responsibility and respective capability,� it is only logical that developed countries should continue taking the lead in significant reducing carbon emissions. They can do this by transforming their social and economic systems into low carbon or carbon neutral societies. I appreciate that many advances economies, including those at local levels are already setting ambitious emission reduction targets without even waiting for a global agreement.
 
Developed countries are also called upon to provide resources, environmentally sound technologies and the necessary financial support for developing countries, many of which have scant for coping with and adapting to the impact of climate change.
 
The post 2012 regime, therefore, should strengthen the commitment of developed countries to reduce their emissions. The major economic powers should be faithful to their commitments under the current and future climate regimes.
 
Developing countries, on the other hand, should participate voluntarily in reducing their national greenhouse gas emissions according to their national circumstances.
 
In this regard, I am impressed by the deep concern demonstrated by countries that participated in such important meetings as the APEC Economic Leader’s Meeting in Sydney, Australia, and the Major Economies’ Meeting in Washington DC, recently. With inputs derived from these and other important meetings, we can devise in Bali a feasible road-map toward 2012 and beyond. These inputs are building blocks toward a structure for cooperation between the developed and developing world on such vital concerns as mitigation, adaptation and financing for sustainable development.

Many developing countries are already promoting and implementing measures to reduce emissions as well as to adapt to and cope with the impact of climate change. Nevertheless, the situation calls on the developing nations to do more.
 
They would be well advised to formulate and carry out innovative and forward looking national strategies by way of mitigation and adaptation. They should also be encouraged to construct enabling mechanisms such as fiscal and regulatory policies and market oriented arrangements that reduce the costs of mitigation and adaptation and help mobilized required investments.

Of course, we all know that mitigation and adaptation measures cannot altogether succeed without appropriate and adequate technology. Unfortunately, development and transfer of climate friendly technology have not been effectively implemented in current practice. The international community must therefore put more emphasis on the need of the developing countries to make use of environment friendly technology in the future regime.
 
We should also look closely into the vital role that carbon sinks can play in mitigating emissions. We must look for ways to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradations – two pernicious practices that are contributing greatly to the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This can be done in a manner that will strengthen the resilience of forest communities.
 
That is why we have undertaken, as a side event of the High-Level Event on Climate Change in New York last September, the initiative of launching a Special Leaders’ Meeting of Tropical Rainforest Countries. In that side event, countries blessed with large tracts of tropical rain forests formulated a constructive proposal to strengthen the role of forests in reducing global warming. With strong support and incentives, I am sure this initiative will succeed.
 
This means that the carbon market for REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries) should provide a better price for each ton of carbon saved, and that price should be determined by the market, so that the tropical rain forest countries would not have to shoulder the burden of opportunity costs. And let us not forget that the multinational companies of the industrialized countries are often willing and should therefore be enlisted to play a crucial role in the efforts of rain forest countries to reforest and prevent deforestation.
 
As to the issue of adaptation, it is unfortunate that it has not been given the attention that is its due. May I therefore reiterate that we are all threatened by climate change at varying levels of intensity and that the future regime should therefore give sufficient emphasis on adaptation. It should, in the first place, be mainstreamed into development planning. Funds for adaptation should be enlarged and investment and financial flows for adaptation should be intensified.
 
Being the host to the Thirteenth Session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Third Session of the Conference of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, we in Indonesia will do everything we can to help ensure that these important sessions will attain their goals. The Bali Conference is an unique opportunity for all of us in the international community to assure present and future generations that their prospects have not been dimmed climate change. We must demonstrate that through the exercise of our collective political will, we will effectively meet this enormous moral obligation.
 
As the UN Secretary General has said, and I quote “Give the nature and magnitude of the challenge, national action alone is insufficient. No nation can address this challenge on its own. No region can insulate itself from these climate changes. That is why we need to confront climate change within a global framework, one that guarantees the highest level of international cooperation.�
 
We must therefore work together in a spirit of common but differentiated responsibility and contribute our respective capabilities in protecting the environment of our planet. We must act together as a community of nations moved by a common vision and a higher sense of ethics and moral responsibility.
 
I have no doubt we will prove equal to that responsibility, and eventually we will devise a new regime that will provide the framework for a global partnership for sustainable development. And thus we will able to ensure the long term viability of our planet and the long term survival of the human race.
 
Finally, by saying Bismillaahirrahmaanirrahiim, I declare “The Informal Ministerial Meeting on the Preparation of COP 13 and CMP 3� open.
 
I thank you.

 

 


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