Low carbon growth in Indonesia

Indonesia has responded to worldwide concern about climate change by committing to significant carbon emissions reductions over the next decade. Achievement of this goal will face significant practical obstacles, and the opportunity cost of avoided deforestation is considerable. In our second Policy Dialogue, two climate change experts present contributions to the debate. This exchange could not be more timely, given Norway's recent offer of substantial development assistance to Indonesia in return for reductions in deforestation and forest degradation. In this first contribution, Adam Schwarz canvasses abatement options and outlines barriers to abatement and its measurement. These include capacity and data constraints, obstacles posed by decentralisation, and problems in identifying and measuring the costs of abatement measures. The author urges Indonesia to embrace the opportunity a lower carbon growth trajectory presents, and argues that this will require substantial additional funding, including from developed countries, and sustained leadership. (Ed.)

Agriculture · Business · Climate change · Decentralization · Deforestation (computer science) · Development economics · Economic growth · Economic policy · Economics · Forest degradation · Geography · Land degradation · Market economy · Natural resource economics · Opportunity cost · Public economics · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Ecology

• Environmental and Social Impacts of Oil Palm Plantations and their Implications for Biofuel Production in Indonesia

  Open Access•Krystof Obidzinski, Rubeta Andriani et al.•Conservation Ecology•2012

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• An overview of forest and land allocation policies in Indonesia

  Open Access•Maria Brockhaus, Krystof Obidzinski et al.•Forest Policy and Economics•2011

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