Indonesia's Target Climate Goals to Curb Global Warming Insufficient: Global Research Coalition

Climate change and global warming have been a recurring theme when it comes to the potential catastrophic destruction of the world's environment on land, water, or the atmosphere in the coming decades.

In recent years, scientists used climate models to show that rising temperatures and global sea-level rise at an alarming rate is imminent by the end of the 21st century unless humans take action.

While there are a number of reported disbelievers to the climate crisis, the United Nations, the scientific community, and other organizations recognize the threat as evident.

With this, the UN-led 2015 Paris Agreement formally organized different countries around the world towards a collective action against climate change, with main objective of decreasing global temperatures down to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

As several countries struggled in the past to cope up with the objectives, a global research coalition reported earlier this week that Indonesia's climate goals to curb global warming in line with the Paris Climate Agreement is "highly insufficient" or "critically insufficient."

This means that the country's effort to mitigate its greenhouse gas emissions is not enough to counter the greenhouse effect.

Earlier this year, another country was placed on the hot seat after multiple reports revealed that deforestation increased at an unprecedented rate.

The record-high deforestation occurred in Brazil, where a large portion of the Amazon rainforest was lost compared in previous years.

The coalition also reported that among other countries, the US, Russia, and China have also insufficient ratings.

Indonesia Climate Goals

The said global research coalition called Climate Action Tracker (CAT) stated Indonesia has updated its Paris Agreement 2030 targets but both the unconditional and conditional targets are still "weak"; as the country tends to overachieve both targets with policies already in place.

Despite its low rating, CAT said the Indonesian government is engaging in positive measures in planning a phase out of coal fire power generation.

This has been the case even if coal is still important to Indonesia' electricity system.

The CAT suggests that Indonesia reduce its land use, land use change, and forestry (LULUCF) emissions in order to meet its targets by the end of the decade.

The research coalition adds that the country's climate policies are failing to put it on a path towards the use of renewable energy, where studies have reportedly demonstrated Indonesia could achieve by 2050.

Paris Agreement

Also known as the Paris Treaty or Paris Accords, the Paris Agreement was ratified in 2015 and came into force in November 2016.

Consisting of at least 190 parties or countries, the UN-led global climate treaty monitors the performances of its member states.

According to the Turkish news agency Anadolu Agency on Monday, December 12, countries are falling behind their climate commitments to the Paris Agreement event after seven years.

The news agency cites a report by 200 scientists that even if countries quickly reduce their carbon emissions, the temperature of the Earth will still increase by at least 1.5 degrees Celsius in the next 20 years.

The temperature increase will reportedly lead to extreme weather and climate events such as heat waves, drought, and floods, as well as violent storms.