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City endeavors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with Ikhtiar Jakarta

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Jakarta Post - March 3, 2019

A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil, Jakarta – To reduce greenhouse gas emissions as part of Indonesia's efforts to meet its nationally determined contribution (NDC), the Jakarta administration aims to be a model city of emissions reduction by drafting an action plan called Ikhtiar Jakarta (Jakarta Endeavor).

Ikhtiar Jakarta would consist of action plans and commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions not just from the government, but also civil society organizations, ICLEI-Local Government for Sustainability Indonesia country manager, Gina Karina said.

ICLEI is a global network of towns, cities and regions committed to building a sustainable future. "This ikhtiar will contain strategies from the residents' point of view as well," Gina said at a discussion on Friday.

She said that Ikhtiar Jakarta, as part of the ICLEI Indonesia Ambitious City Promises project, would take into account the wishes of citizens to speed up emissions reduction efforts, and has identified 11 stakeholders.

They are children and teachers, youths, women, disabled people, fishermen, urban farmers, nongovernmental organizations, religious groups, academics, as well as businesses in the city.

Gina said that ICLEI Indonesia and the Jakarta administration would conduct a public consultation on Monday with the stakeholders to come up with the final draft of Ikhtiar Jakarta.

She added the draft would also include at least two pilot projects to introduce and to start implementing Ikhtiar Jakarta once it was finished.

The projects would involve schools and religious groups carrying out actions to reduce emissions locally, which could be replicated elsewhere, although the technical details had yet to be finished, Gina said.

Gina went on to say that Ikhtiar Jakarta would provide a framework for the Jakarta administration to formalize regional legislation, with the citizens proposing steps that could be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Assistant to the governor for spatial planning and environment Oswar Muadzin Mungkasa applauded Ikhtiar Jakarta, saying it was important that all levels of society in the city were involved in creating steps to achieve the emissions target.

"We have always thought that the environment was only the responsibility of the government, but that's not the case," Oswar said.

He said that Ikhtiar Jakarta would provide a grand design to address one of Jakarta's environmental issues, which is greenhouse gas emissions, but through collaboration with residents.

Jakarta Environment Agency climate change mitigation and adaptation division head Susi Andriani said the city had made several efforts to reduce carbon emissions in the energy sector, waste treatment, as well as agriculture, forestry and transportation.

According to Gubernatorial Regulation No. 131/2012 on greenhouse gas reduction, Jakarta plans to reduce emissions by 30 percent by 2030.

According to Jakarta Environment Agency data in 2017, the city had been able to reduce emissions by 7.81 millions tons of carbon dioxide, equal to 22.16 percent of the 2030 target, Susi said.

Jakarta Transportation Agency road division head, Anwar, said the agency was also continuing to work toward reducing emissions, by reviewing the permits of Kopaja (Jakarta Transportation Cooperative) and Metro Mini buses and public transportation through the Jak Lingko public transportation integration program.

He said that although issuing a permit for a vehicle to operate was the authority of the Jakarta One-Stop Integrated Service Agency, the Transportation Agency only recommended giving operation licenses to Kopaja and Metro Mini buses that were less than 10 years old.

Anwar also said that through the Jak Lingko program, which improves connectivity between various modes of transportation including Transjakarta buses and angkot (public minivans), he hoped people would be encouraged to use public transportation.

Source: https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/03/03/city-endeavors-to-reduce-greenhouse-gas-emissions-with-ikhtiar-jakarta.html

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