Amelia Rahima Sari, Jakarta – Greenpeace Indonesia asks presidential candidates to support the transition towards a green economy. Head of Greenpeace Indonesia, Leonard Simanjuntak, said the issue of green economic transition is important to discuss because it has a long-term impact, citing the climate crises currently occurring throughout the world.
"If you look at the transition, this is not just a matter of new business areas or new investment. We have to go back to the fact that this is a crisis that we must respond to," Leonard said at the 'Young People's Discussion' and the launch of 'Greenpeace Indonesia's Green Economy Declaration' in Jakarta's Menteng area on Monday, February 5.
He said that the crisis must be responded to with a climate science-based approach. According to Leonard, this was something that was missing from the presidential candidates' discussion, even in the fourth vice presidential candidates' debate which had the environment as its theme.
Leonard claimed that the earth's temperature has risen by around 1.2 degrees since the industrial revolution.
"Last year, and it has been estimated that this year again, will be the hottest year in the history of Earth's temperature, and that is no longer an anomaly because it has almost always increased consistently since 2016," said Leonard.
Greenpeace claims green economy can create 19mn new jobs
Meanwhile, Greenpeace Indonesia's media campaigner Rahka Susanto said the green economy idea developed by Greenpeace is not just a transition from dirty energy to clean energy. It also answers problems in society. One of the problems, according to Greenpeace Indonesia's survey and Greenpeace-Celios research, is the limited employment opportunities.
"If we transition, there will be around 19.4 million new jobs that can be created," said Rahka.
The largest employment absorption, he claimed, would come from the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors. According to him, this would mean that young people do not need to move to big cities just to work because they can work in their own hometown. That way, he added, the gap between the rich and the poor could decrease.
"The question is, how serious are our policymakers in committing, ambitiously, to implementing a green economic transition?" Rahka asked.