Yudhoyono asks Climate Summit delegates to discard egoism

SBY PRESIDENCY. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on all parties at the climate change summit here on Thursday to drop their egoism to open opportunities for reaching a maximum agreement.

"Now it is not the right time for dogma and confrontation. Now is the time for a solution and a concensus. The dogma at this time is human survival," he said in his speech at the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC).

He said Indonesia had five proposals and views for an agreement to be made in Copenhagen.

"Our common target is controlling global warming in which temperature must not rise by more than two degrees. On this point there should be no compromise. To achieve it, countries can do things in line with their respective responsibility and respect each other`s capability," he said.

He said Indonesia hoped advanced countries could meet their historic obligation to slow down, stop and even prevent global warming.

He said Indonesia believed the committment covered 40 percent of the demand of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He said Indonesia also called on industrial countries to do the same.

He said according to Indonesia mitigation and adaptation efforts as well as international cooperation could not be done without a financial agreement and an initiative to establish it would be a good beginning.

"To my view the figures would be around US$25 million to US$35 million until 2012. Advanced countries have the capacity for it. It is only about a political will. Remember the several million dollars is not comparable to six trillion dollars lost as a result of global financial crisis," he said.

He said mitigation efforts could not be done by developed countries alone but developing countries also had to strive and have committment to reduce carbon emissions to avoid repeating the same mistakes done by advanced countries to contribute to dealing with the climate problem.

He said with regard to that Indonesia in September 2009 set a target of reducing emissions to 26 percent until 2020 with the possibility to increase it to 41 percent with an international help.

As a non-Annex 1 country, he said, Indonesia did not have to decide it. "But we wish to be part of the global solution," he said.

He said developed and developing countries also had to jointly assure the aid would be used as expected and for that a system of supervision needed to be put in place but it would not only be developing countries that would be supervised but also the aid as well as the progress and implementation of the aid from developed countries "including the amount of emissions to be reduced and for that a reliable measurement must be made available to avoid confusion at global level."

Indonesia underlined the importance of forest management and therefore it would continue to be implemented to achieve the 26 percent target, he said.

In view of the importance of the forests he urged all parties to think that it would be more beneficial to let trees grow than to cut them.

"What we do today is in essence about how to meet our moral and political obligations to assure stable climate for our future generation and earth," he said.

President Yudhoyono delivered the speech after President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa of Mexico, Prime Minister Kevin M Rudd of Australia, Prime Minister George Papandreou of Greece, Prime Minister Sali Berisha of Albania, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon and President Anote Tong of Kiribati.(ANTARA News)