"The law on climate change should be immediately enforced. It is not fair that the impacts of climate change should be borne by the next generation," Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi)'s Campaign Manager, Edo Rakhman remarked here on Monday.
He pointed out that the law should serve as a foundation for the government to draft a policy and implement development programs.
Emission reduction can be achieved by immediately passing a moratorium to halt the clearing of primary forests and peatlands and the use of coal for producing electricity, Edo remarked.
"The government should maximize the utilization of renewable energy resources that are abundantly available in Indonesia such as geothermal, solar energy, sea waves, and biomass," he stressed.
Indonesia needs a legislation that seriously sets and regulates climate change and its impacts.
Moreover, the legislation should also make the government accountable to the people as climate change affects the social and economic life of the community.
"The moratorium must also be included in the climate change law as sometimes it can still be violated using the policies implemented through regional autonomy," Edo affirmed.
He noted that the implementation of a moratorium in some provinces or districts is not optimal as the local administrations do not give importance to enforce the policy.
The presidential instructions are not enforced as the regional heads use spatial regulations and their local autonomy, which allows them to issue permits for plantation or forest management.
In fact, climate change has a wide-ranging impact on the environment. This condition should not be simply regarded as a common phenomenon or natural process alone, but instead, must be viewed as a consequence and an impact of human intervention.
"Industrial activity, energy, technology, agriculture, natural resource exploitations, and others lead to increase in emissions and are associated with human activities," Edo remarked.
Currently, Indonesia is one of the five largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world arising due to deforestation and forest degradation.
Despite the Indonesian governments commitment to reduce emissions by 26 percent by the year 2020, however, the results are yet to be seen.
As of now, forest and peat fires continue to occur and adversely affect the country and the neighboring countries, Edo added.