Progress and Challenges of Combating Climate Change in Indonesia: An Interview with Prof. Rachmat Witoelar, the President’s Special Envoy for Climate Change

Abstract

Professor Rachmat Witoelar, former Minister of the Environment in Indonesia, heads the National Council on Climate Change in Indonesia (DNPI) and Indonesia’s delegations to negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This interview was conducted during the most recent UNFCCC negotiations in Bonn in May 2012 and contains references to specific agreements in that process. As the Kyoto Protocol – which includes binding targets for countries in the Global North (so-called Annex 1 countries) – is drawing to an end, negotiations revolve around a new protocol, but last year’s high level talks in Durban only came up with a fairly vague result – the Durban Platform – without binding emission reduction targets. In this context, Indonesia’s announcement to pursue its own unilateral reduction target is significant. The progress and challenges of achieving this target are the focus of the following interview.