Regional governments key to tackling climate change

Share this article WhatsappFacebookTwitterLinkedin Citra Endah Nur Setyawati and Venkatachalam Anbumozhi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta ● Mon, January 24 2022Every year people in the country feel the pressure of climate change as floods inundate crops, villages and cities from Papua to Sumatra. Climate change is already under way, causing havoc to humankind and ecosystems around the world. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in 2021 confirms that the risks will increase if the global average surface temperature rises by 2 degrees Celsius, and in particular developing countries like Indonesia will be more vulnerable to the impact of climate change. According to the IPCC’s fifth assessment report (2014) and Indonesian Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry (2020), climate change and unpredictable weather have resulted in sea level rises that are reducing marine fish catches by 40–60 percent, as well as worsening socioeconomic conditions in around 10,000 coastal villages in Indonesia. In tackling climate change and avoiding tipping points of global climatic disasters, controlling carbon emissions from the global energy system, which is currently heavily reliant on fossil fuels, is critical.