KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY

DR. SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA

AT THE

HIGH LEVEL PLENARY SESSION OF THE 13TH COP/ 3RD CMP
UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON CLIMATE CHANGE

BALI, INDONESIA, 12 DECEMBER 2007

Bismillahirahmanarrihim
Assalamu’alaikum Wr. Wb.

His Excellency Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-moon,
His Excellency Heads of State and Head of Government, 
Ministers, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear friends,

Let me begin by expressing our heartfelt condolences for the horrible terrorist attack that claimed the lives of UN officials in Algiers yesterday.  We pray for the innocent victims and our deepest sympathies go to the families they left behind. 

On that sad note, I am pleased to welcome all of you to this historic gathering here in Bali, Indonesia.

I have two congratulations to make.  First, to the IPCC and Al Gore for winning the Nobel Peace Prize this year.  Let’s give them a big hand !  Well done ! 

My second congratulations go to the Government of Australia for its speedy ratification of the Kyoto Protocol.  To Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, I say to you : Welcome aboard, mate !

We are gathered here to fulfil the hopes of over 6 billion people living on our planet.  But we also gather here on behalf of the nine billion people, my great great grandchildren and yours, who are projected to inhabit our planet by the year 2050.  Whether they will live in a world 2 degrees Celsius warmer, or catastrophically, 5 degrees Celsius hotter, will very much depend on what we decide to do here in Bali.

I am very much heartened that we are having a great, energetic gathering here in Bali. Our delegates are working until the late hour of the night.  Women, NGOs, religious leaders are all taking part in over 800 side-events.  There is a high spirit of cooperation here in Bali.

People say that climate change is an extremely complex issue, with all sorts of hard-to-remember acronyms, technical jargons and intricate mechanisms.  But the plain truth is that there IS a very simple formula to resolve it : LESS EMISSIONS, MORE SINKS !  Our challenge is how to translate this simple formula into a complex yet ambitious architecture of global cooperation on climate change.

The Kyoto Protocol was a good start.  But this is still way below the 25 - 40% benchmark required to stabilize world average temperature. The Kyoto Protocol also did not adequately address the issue of sustainable forestry in developing countries--our indispensable carbon sinks.   Thus, ten years after Kyoto, the world has seen neither reduced emissions, nor more carbon sinks.  This is not acceptable, and we must urgently reverse this trend!

We are not here to trade stories about the danger of global warming.  We are not here to assign blame. 

But we ARE here to chart a new course, to formulate a clear path towards a more comprehensive framework on climate change under the UNFCCC.

The world community has accepted, since the groundbreaking Rio Summit 15 years ago, the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities”.  We must continue to be guided by this important principle. 

Unfortunately, for so many years, we have NOT given the concept adequate flesh and bone.  NOW is the time that we specify more clearly how to best implement this concept of “common but differentiated responsibilities”, beyond generalities, beyond promises, into concrete numbers, concrete programs, concrete schemes, concrete road map.

Indeed, to the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities”, I would also add another phrase : synergic action.  It is one thing to know of one’s particular responsibilities, and it is one thing to deploy one’s respective capabilities, but unless we marshal them together in a concerted, SYNERGIC action—from Los Angeles to London, from Beijing to Bombay, from Jakarta to Johannesburg, from Sydney to Santiago—then our new architecture will be defected. 

In this global partnership that we seek, every nation must become part of the solution, not part of the problem.  Developed countries, due to their historical responsibility for global warming which they themselves have accepted, MUST do more.  They must continue to take leadership on climate change.   

Thus, they must do significantly more to cut their own emissions, and they must do more to work with developing countries.  They must intensify clean energy technology sharing with developing countries, and they must enhance financial flows for mitigation and adaptation in developing countries.  Developed countries have the capabilities, they have the financial resources, and they have the technology to do this.  I commend those countries, and regions within countries, that have pro-actively established ambitious commitments and targets, without waiting for others to come forward. 

It is also critical that developed countries should engage in much more active partnership, with developing countries that protect their forests, through creative means of compensation and incentives.  Unless man invents a machine that can absorb the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere—and I do not see that happening soon—the forests are our only option for carbon sinks.

But we all know that this plethora of commitments will not be enough unless everybody is on board. By being on board, we could all talk, develop options and complete our task to establish the architecture of post-2012 framework.

Developing countries too must do our part.  Developing countries must commit to a path of sustainable development by mainstreaming the environment in our national development plans.  Those blessed with forests must do all they can to preserve and expand their forest cover.  Developing countries experiencing high economic growth must avoid the mistakes of earlier industrial nations by planning a long-term low-carbon development.   Developing countries can also take advantage of a rapidly expanding carbon market to harness opportunities for their socio-economic development. We must keep in mind that many in developing countries worry not about cars, air conditions, or cell phones but about whether they will have food on their plate.

There are also areas where both developed and developing countries can do to reduce emissions and increase carbon sinks. 

Both developed and developing countries can work together to mainstream mitigation and adaptation into their national development strategies.

Both can learn how to achieve higher economic growth without producing higher emissions.

Both can work to enhance the use of non-fossil energy, including renewable energy. 

And both can work together to help nations, including low-lying island nations, that are most vulnerable to the impacts of global warming.

And because climate change adjustments will be government and market driven, they can produce policies and incentives that would shift to low-carbon economy.  That is precisely why the special parallel meetings of the Trade Ministers and Finance Ministers in Bali were historic and significant. 

Both developed and developing countries can also ensure that the private sector and the multi-national companies are part of our great project for our clean green future. 

The bottom line is that we must all do something differently, and do something more.  We in Indonesia have also tried to do our part.  We have become ever more aware, and humbled, by the fact that our tropical rainforests have a strategic, global function, that is, they produce oxygen and absorb carbon dioxides not just for Indonesians but for the human race all over the planet. 

To preserve these natural assets, we have established, along with Malaysia and Brunei, an ambitious “Heart of Borneo” program, which aims to conserve 22 million hectares of tropical rainforests in Indonesia alone.  We have intensified our national forestry campaign.  This year alone, we planted 89 million trees, including 10 million by women.  When these trees are fully grown several years from now, they will collectively absorb tens of million tons of C02 equivalent from the atmosphere.  At the same time, we are resolutely fighting illegal loggers and putting them behind bars, and we have done hundreds of times in recent years, and we are sparing no efforts to reduce forest fires.  Indeed, in the last four years, the Indonesian Government has increased our national budget for forestry-related programs by a whopping 800 %.   We have also produced a National Action Plan addressing climate change that among others aim to diversify energy sources, with emphasis on clean energy, particularly renewables.  We are a
iming to reduce the role of fossil fuel in our energy mix from 52 % to 20 % by 2025, and increase geothermal energy to 5 %.

Ultimately, all these efforts from developed and developing countries must be part of a coherent, single multilateral framework.  But as the Chinese proverb says, “a thousand mile journey begins with a first step”.  Therefore, it is absolutely critical for this Conference to produce, at the end of our gathering, the Bali Road Map.  We urge everybody to be on board in completing our post-2012 framework in the next two stops in Poland and Denmark.

With the Bali Road Map, we can immediately start intense negotiations to conclude a single post-2012 multilateral framework on climate change.  That Road Map must have a clear agenda on what will be negotiated, including the key building blocks, which we have identified as at least comprising of mitigation, adaptation, finance and technology.  And that Road Map will have a clear timeline of work and completion of work. 

We MUST be able to finish the negotiations in a space of 2 years, ending in 2009 !

We MUST do this quickly to ensure that there will be no gap after the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012. 

And we MUST ensure that the United States of America, as the world’s biggest economy, the largest emitter of greenhouse gas, and the world leader in technology, is PART of such post-2012 arrangement, because otherwise we will not be able to effectively address the climate change issue.

Our efforts to produce the Bali Road Map should also include an early harvest on certain issues of common interest which is essential to combat climate change.  We must do our best also to achieve a breakthrough while we are here in Bali on at least some strategic issues such as : Adaptation Fund, deforestation, and technology transfer. The Bali Road Map should contain important decisions to ensure the implementation of the commitment under the convention as well as to secure the climate future.

There are many pundits out there who regard our conference with a great deal of scepticism.  And they DO have a reason to be sceptical, because 15 years after Rio, and 10 years after Kyoto, we still have not succeeded in stopping global warming.

But I do believe that today, we have much greater opportunity now to produce a global consensus for a better, stronger, more comprehensive post-2012 international arrangement to address climate change. 

Today, we seem to have all the potential ingredients that we did not have before.  Let me highlight some these ingredients:

We have identified 4 important building blocks as essential components of the Bali Roadmap.
We have reaffirmed the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilies and respective capabilities”.
We are encouraged that the industrial countries continue to take the lead.
We are all agreed that the momentum is greater than ever, therefore we should be able to deliver a real “breakthrough” here in Bali.
We all recognize the urgent need to launch a negotiations process for a post-2012 arrangement, and to enhance the implementation of the provisions of the convention and its Kyoto Protocol.
We are all equally concerned about the dangerous trajectory of climate change, and wish to slow and stop that trajectory.
We all recognize the imperative of sustainable development in the context of climate change.
We are heartened with the strong commitment by the developed countries on the need for deeper cuts.
We all know that Kyoto alone is not enough to curb climate change and that more needs to be done
And we all know that there is an overwhelming consensus on the fourth assessment report of the IPCC and the need to an immediate response to the scientific findings.

That’s a lot of ingredients !  The challenge is how to pull them together in this multilateral negotiation. We have to set clear goals, devise a coherent means, and now in Bali we have to formulate a common strategy to achieve our common ends.

What we have to avoid here in Bali is what I call the “great paradox”.  That great paradox is manifest in many troubling questions:

IF .. it is clear that the cost of inaction far outweighs the cost of action, what prevents us from investing the necessary resources today for our common future ?

The thing about this great paradox is that not only do we have to explain it to our constituents, but each one of us also has to go home to our spouse and children and neighbours and answer their question of whether we did our best here in Bali to protect their future !   Did we come-up with a Road Map, did we make a breakthrough, did we secure a more promising climate future ?

For we are embarking on the greatest project in the history of human civilization. 

And the worst thing that can happen here is to end our Conference with no consensus, no breakthrough, and its all business as usual.  We should avoid this scenario at all costs.

So let us do the right thing.  Let it be known years from now that Bali is the mark where we turn the corner of history. 

Let us set a clear new direction.  Let us produce that strategic Bali Roadmap.  Let us get on with intense negotiations on an agreed agenda.  At this critical hour, we cannot afford to let the momentum slip by.

It is time for leadership and decision.  It is time to say what we mean and mean what we say.  

Let us begin our work.  I thank you.