Our forests, our future
 By: Ron Luhur, Washington D.C.

This December, thousands of representatives from countries, companies and civil groups will gather in Bali to discuss climate change.

The world will be watching and Indonesia will find itself in a unique position in history. Indonesia has the opportunity to influence the way we resolve the world's most pressing economic and environmental challenge.

As both an Indonesian and an environmental advocate, I'm excited and proud at my country's opportunity to lead the way.

Many assume that developing countries like ours can not or do not want to be part of the solution. In Washington, D.C., where I live, many legislators and officials make this assumption and use it as an excuse for inaction. This year's Bali conference will be a critical opportunity for Indonesia and our fellow rain forest nations to change this misperception. It is also an opportunity to show the White House and the U.S. Congress that they can no longer use developing countries as an excuse to remain on the sidelines.

Greenhouse gas emissions from forest clearing and forest burning eclipse the emissions from all the cars, trucks, planes, trains and ships in the world combined. These are the largest sources of emissions in the developing world, accounting for roughly 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. If tropical deforestation emissions are accounted for, Indonesia is surpassed only by the United States and China in its contribution to climate change.

We hear a lot about fossil fuels, and how we need bigger reductions in emissions from sectors heavily reliant on them, like power generation and cement production -- areas that are the focus of international agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol. And this is true. But glaringly absent from these agreements has been a recognition that deforestation emissions must also be reduced in order to tackle climate change.

We simply cannot ignore emissions from deforestation any longer. To do so would be to pass up significant reductions and turn our backs on the magnificent tropical forests that serve as the lungs of our planet.

The technical know-how needed to attack deforestation exists today, including sophisticated satellite-based forest monitoring systems. But a critical hurdle remains: the opportunity for developing countries to reap what they sow.

For many industrialized countries, thanks to the Kyoto Protocol, emitters such as power plants have an option to sell reductions on the carbon market, and hence, have profit incentives they can use to find new ways to cut emissions more cheaply. By aligning business incentives with environmental performance, access to carbon markets has driven innovation and will lead to large-scale reductions from this sector.

By the same token, opening access to carbon markets for developing countries could align incentives with forest protection and drive innovation and large-scale cuts in deforestation emissions.

Indonesia's big opportunity here is to craft the post-Kyoto global road map -- a Bali road map -- which acknowledges the singular importance of addressing deforestation, and treats reductions in deforestation with the same measures as those used for reductions in fossil fuels. Since industrialized countries are compensated through the carbon markets for their reductions, developing countries should equally qualify for compensation through the markets for the deforestation reductions they achieve.

The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, the principal carbon market today, was valued at US$25 billion last year and is projected to grow dramatically. There are signs that a U.S. carbon market could also emerge in the not too distant future. Despite the lack of progress by the White House, momentum is building in the U.S. Congress and in key U.S. states, including California. If such markets emerge in the U.S., the global carbon market could grow by an additional $50-$300 billion a year -- creating sizable opportunities for finance and investments that Indonesia cannot afford to miss out on.

For Indonesia, there is a great deal at stake. We are vulnerable to the economic and social impacts of increased dangerous weather phenomena such as prolonged floods, which threaten to inundate productive agricultural lands -- perhaps like the floods that Jakarta, my beloved hometown, experienced early this year.

We need to focus on sustainable development and ways to maximize long-term economic opportunities for Indonesia, including protecting idyllic beaches and coral reefs that drive Indonesia's tourist economy.

We also need to elevate a new generation of Indonesians who are world-class builders and leaders to be part of what will possibly be the world's largest commodities market.

The current administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has the opportunity to be part of the new generation. As the leader of the newly-minted Forest-11, the President has assembled a coalition of developing rain forest countries who have declared their interest in playing a key role in the climate change solution.

This is a great first step, but the President, his partner countries and fellow Indonesians must pursue, with vigor, a way in Bali to give the developing world and its forests equal access to the world's burgeoning carbon marketplace. Together, we must show the world that we, as developing countries, are ready to lead the way in fighting climate change.

The writer is a carbon markets specialist at Environmental Defense in Washington, D.C. He can be reached at rluhur@environmentaldefense.org

(The Jakarta Post)