Nine PAGE countries are participating in a new centralized hub for information on planned climate and environmental policies and actions in the context of COVID-19 recovery. Launched in September, the Online Platform for Sustainable and Resilient Recovery from COVID-19 (“ Platform for Redesign 2020 ”) is under the leadership of the Ministry of the Environment Japan with support from the UNFCCC, and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES ). The countries participating from PAGE include Brazil, Burkina Faso, China, Indonesia, Mauritius, Mongolia, Morocco, Thailand and Peru. Country pages include response, recovery, and redesign measures across sectors while a September 3rd Ministerial Meeting offered a platform for live exchange.
Indonesia News
The Government of Indonesia, specifically, PAGE-partner the Environmental Affairs of the Indonesia Ministry of National Development Planning / BAPPENAS, participated in the Climate Change Expert Group (CCXG) Global Forum on the Environment and Climate Change, held by the OECD on 15 - 16 September 2020.
BAPPENAS Director Dr. Medrilzam presented the country's experience on planning for a sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, aligned with its Low Carbon Development Initiative. With COP26 deferred to 2021, the virtual Global Forum encourages continued discussion on climate action, particularly covering Common Reporting Tables (CRTs) for the reporting of national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories, and how to encourage a sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic .
Dr. Medrilzam, the Director of Environmental Affairs of the Indonesia Ministry of National Development Planning/BAPPENAS, presented alongside representatives from New Zealand, Nigeria, and South Korea within the session: Country experiences: Sustainable Covid-19 Recovery and Climate Action — sharing how Indonesia is integrating recovery strategy through ‘Building Back Better with Low Carbon Development Initiative (LCDI)”.
While the economic slowdown from COVID-19 has resulted in an emissions reduction in 2020 to around 29.5%, economic recovery following the outbreak would likely see an emissions rebound in 2022. However,the Government shared that it may still achieve the 2030 target by implementing a “Build Back Better with Low Carbon Development” scenario.
The Climate Change Expert Group (CCXG) is a forum for promoting dialogue and enhancing understanding between a wide range of countries on technical issues in the international climate change negotiations and has been providing analysis of climate change issues since 1993. The Global Forum provides a space outside of the UNFCCC negotiations for participants to develop a shared understanding of provisions in the Paris Agreement and how these might be implemented.
View information on the event and each session here.
View the presentation the GoI representative delivered here.
On 6 August 2020, the Ministry of National Development Planning (Bappenas), together with the Provincial Government of Bali (Regional Development Planning Agency Bali), led a kick-off meeting for Bali to be one of Low Carbon Development Initiative (LCDI) pilot provinces. Bali follows West Java and Central Java as the third pilot province for implementation of the LCDI, which are supported by PAGE Indonesia.
In the meeting a logframe was agreed upon and, consistent with the other pilot provinces, PAGE has committed to support the implementation of LCDI in Bali, through provincial model development and enhancement, capacity-building for mainstreaming LCDI approach into the Regional Medium-term Development Plan, technical assistance to formulate the provincial Low Carbon Development Plan, as well as an assessment on alternative financing schemes for LCDI.
The LCDI was launched by Bappenas in 2017 to identify development policies that maintain economic growth, alleviate poverty, and help meet sector-level development targets, while simultaneously helping Indonesia achieve its climate objectives, and preserve and improve the country’s natural resources. It aims to explicitly incorporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets and environment considerations into the development planning framework that will shape the economic and social trajectories. The LCDI approach has been incorporated into the National Medium-term Development Plan (RPJMN) 2020-2024, which considered as the first green national development plan in Indonesia. Coordinated by Bappenas, the implementation of LCDI brings together multi-stakeholders from the Government of Indonesia, development partners, distinguished experts, and civil society.
Following the provincial LCDI generic/macro model, which was developed in previous months, the expert modelling team has begun collecting sectoral data from the West Java province to validate the LCDI provincial macro model. This process will be followed by enhancement of the macro model for each of the three LCDI pilot provinces under PAGE’s support (West Java, Central Java, and Bali) taking into account the provincial characteristic, development landscape, and most importantly provincial data. Moving forward, the enhanced provincial model will be a vital tool to review the existing Medium-term Regional Development Plan 2018-2023 (Rencana Pembangunan Jangka Menengah Daerah/RPJMD) and to formulate the provincial Low Carbon Development Plan (Rencana Pembangunan Rendah Karbon Daerah/RPRKD). The enhanced provincial model will also be used by each province to mainstream the LCDI approach/policies into its next Regional Medium-term Development Plan/RPJMD (2024-2029).
More than 100 participants from a number of municipal governments in West Java, NGOs, private sector, as well as development partners joined a kick-off meeting on Thursday, 5 March 2020 in Bandung, Indonesia for the Low Carbon Development Initiative. The event was hosted and opened by the Head of Regional Development Planning Agency/Bappeda of West Java Province, Dr. Ir. H. M. Taufiq B. Santoso, M.Soc.Sc and the Director of Environmental Affairs of the Ministry of Development Planning/Bappenas, Dr. Medrilzam delivered a keynote speech and presentation about the LCDI. A panel discussion then followed with contributors from UNDP (Dr. Verania Andria), JICA (Dr. Jun Ichihara), and GIZ (Mr. Atjeng Kadaryana).
The Government of Indonesia has been working progressively on the Low Carbon Development Initiative (LCDI) policy since it was initiated during the UNFCCC COP23 in 2017. The LCDI aims at incorporating environmental considerations such as carbon emissions reduction targets and interventions for preserving and restoring the country’s natural resources into the development planning of Indonesia. The LCDI Phase 1 has successfully incorporated the LCDI approach into the National Medium-term Development Plan (RPJMN) 2020-2024 and introduced a system-dynamics planning tool that allows simultaneous assessment of social, environmental and economic impacts in various development scenarios. This kick off comes as the LCDI enters its implementation phase (phase 2).
“Currently, GHG emission reduction has been one of the macro development targets within the National Medium-term Development Planning (RPJMN) 2020-2024, making the environmental issue as important as economic development, poverty eradication, gini ratio, open unemployment rate, and human development index”, said Dr. Medrilzam in his keynote speech. In alignment with Dr. Medrilzam, the Head of Bappeda West Java said that “Low carbon development planning is a solution to boost economic growth and eradicate poverty without sacrificing environmental sustainability”. During the discussion, Dr. Verania Andria of UNDP stressed that “Private sector involvement is critical in achieving LCDI targets in Indonesia”.
Guided by the LCDI Phase 2 Framework, PAGE, in collaboration with the Ministry of National Development Planning and other development partners aims to support the LCDI model development for the next RPJMN (2025-2029) as well as to accelerate the implementation of LCDI development scenarios in selected pilot provinces. PAGE has pledged to support the strengthening of LCDI Policy, Private Sector Engagement, Communication, and Regional Engagement in West Java, Central Java, and Bali provinces.
For West Java in particular, UNDP through PAGE is supporting the province to mainstream the LCDI approach into West Java’s existing Regional Medium-term Development Plan (RPJMD) 2018-2023 and into the next RPJMD 2025-2029, by providing support for coordination and designing the LCD annual programmes, technical assistance, as well as capacity building/trainings for a number of development planners/civil servants on green/LCD planning. Besides, PAGE will collaborate with the Innovative Financing Lab (IFL) to support private sector engagement and resource mobilization for LCDI in the province by conducting a thorough feasibility study and developing business cases for pilot projects.
IMAGE from left to right: Mr. Atjeng Kadaryana (GIZ), Dr. verania Andria (UNDP), Dr. Medrilzam (Head of Environmental Affairs Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas), Dr. Ir. H. M. Taufiq B. Santoso, M.Soc.Sc. (Head of Regional Development Planning Agency West Java), Dr. Jun Ichihara (JICA), and Moderator.
On 7 January, PAGE Indonesia co-organized a kick-off meeting for its new project: "Benchmarking for Dynamic System Model based on the General National Energy Plan" project. Held at the at UNDP Indonesia Office, and attended by representatives of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, the Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas, the System Dynamics Bandung BootCamp (SDBB), and PAGE (UNDP), the project will ultimately provide support for the Ministry and assist in the development of a benchmarking dynamics system based on the general national agency plan.
During the meeting, an initial workplan was presented by the BLU P3KEBTKE, the centre of research and development for electricity technology, new and renewable energy, and energy conservation within the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.
Beyond the focus on developing a benchmarking dynamics system, this project will also contribute to strengthening the existing Low Carbon and Development (LCDI) model, particularly in the energy sector. An LCDI sub-model and database for the energy sector will be developed by the BLU P3KEBTKE team and LCDI policies will be translated into sectoral energy policies. The main expected outputs are:
- Analysis of energy modelling parameter and energy policies;
- Development of dynamic system modelling and impact analysis;
- Dynamic system transformation into a web-based simulation.
Subsequently, PAGE organized a follow-up technical discussion on 15 January. Held at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources' office, and attended by representatives of BLU P3KEBTKE, Bappenas and SDBB, the three parties used this forum to share information, detail the workplan, and agree on collaboration and coordination methods for the future. As a result, a more detailed workplan was then submitted to PAGE Indonesia.