Wibisana, Andri --- "A critical view on Indonesia’s legal responses to climate change" [2013] ELECD 973; in Faure, Michael; Wibisana, Andri (eds), "Regulating Disasters, Climate Change and Environmental Harm" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013) 81

Book Title: Regulating Disasters, Climate Change and Environmental Harm

Editor(s): Faure, Michael; Wibisana, Andri

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781002483

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: A critical view on Indonesia’s legal responses to climate change

Author(s): Wibisana, Andri

Number of pages: 83

Abstract/Description:

The Conference of Parties (COP) 15 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held in Copenhagen in December 2009, ended with no legally-binding commitments. The conference has produced the Copenhagen Accord, but left many issues unaddressed, and thus, creating uncertainty concerning the future of the Kyoto Protocol. This is certainly not a very promising outcome, since the COP13 in Bali has mandated a legally-binding agreement to be concluded in COP 15. The results of the conference have sparked critiques, while the world leaders started to blame each other for the collapse of the climate talks in Copenhagen. Developing countries pointed at the developed countries for the uneasy results of the Copenhagen meeting, as clearly indicated by the statement of the spokesperson of the G77 who blamed the US President for ‘locking the poor into permanent poverty by refusing to reduce US emissions further’. On the other hand, leaders of developed countries blamed the fast-growing developing countries for the failure. Still, however, other countries see the Accord as the best possible result of otherwise worse alternatives that could be achieved in Copenhagen. Hence, they declared their association with the Accord and subsequently submitted their emission reduction plans. Indonesia belongs to this latter group by submitting its unilateral pledge to cut emissions by 26 to 41 percent of its Business as Usual (BAU) emissions in 2020.