Olivia Rondonuwu, Jakarta – Indonesia's environment minister said on Thursday that events in Jakarta, hit by flooding due to unusually high tides this week, served as a timely warning of the impact of global warming on coastal cities.
Rachmat Witoelar urged Group of Eight countries, due to meet next month for a summit in Japan, to show their commitment to tackling global warming, which threatens many coastal and low-lying areas.
"We want to persuade the countries of G8 to be more forthcoming in disbursing funds," he said in an interview on World Environment Day, adding that the Group of Eight countries should not go back on their promises.
"I hope G8 will have a very clear formula on how much, when, and how they are going to disburse" funds to help combat global warming, Witoelar said.
About 190 nations agreed at UN-led talks in Bali last December to launch two-year negotiations on a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, which binds rich nations to emission cuts by an average of 5 percent between 2008-2012 from 1990 levels.
All nations would be bound under Kyoto's successor from 2013, and under the "Bali Roadmap', nations recognised deep cuts in global emissions were needed.
The Indonesian capital provides "a good warning signal" of the dangers the world faces, Witoelar said.
"It is a precursor of what happens if we do not mitigate the climate change, and within 50 years this will happen every day," he said, adding that within 20 years, Jakarta's airport would be unusable, while many homes along the coast would be destroyed.
Parts of Jakarta were hit by flooding this week due to the combination of unusually high tides and the effects of subsidence from excessive extraction of ground water.
High tides and heavy rains frequently disrupt transport on the capital's main airport tollroad and on many of the city's arteries, hurting the local economy.
But Indonesia, Southeast Asia's biggest economy, also draws frequent criticism for its illegal logging, environmental destruction, and conversion of forested land for palm oil production.
As "the foremost owner of the world's biodiversity", Indonesia would ensure that some 47-48 million hectares of forest would not be touched, Witoelar said, although he added that older indigenous trees consumed less CO2 than fast-growing trees, such as those in plantations.
Conversion of unprotected areas for palm oil plantations was necessary as a means of providing jobs, he added. "There's 18 million hectares of wood forest, not indigenous forest, that can be exploited for other uses," he said.
"This growing country needs some leeway for trying to make things happen in terms of providing employment for its people." (Writing by Sara Webb; Editing by Jerry Norton)