MVB recently held a very well attended webinar together with the EU Delegation to Indonesia to explore the ways in which the planned transformative program for EU member states, The Green Deal, can be adapted, modeled or utilized in the simultaneous transition of the Indonesian economy, under what the EU Ambassador to Indonesia describes as “The Green Agenda”. The speakers represented both sides of the potential partnership, The EU Commission and Bappenas, the Ministry of National Development Planning, plus the Indonesian private sector where there are specific requirements already identified by experts. The financial sector was represented by HSBC.
Let’s begin by taking a very objective look at where Indonesian development is in the eyes of a neutral and expert observer.
ASIA DEVELOPMENT BANK OVERVIEW OF INDONESIA
‘Indonesia has made remarkable progress in its social and economic development in the past few decades. Since the 1998 Asian financial crisis, its economy has grown tenfold and per capita income has risen eightfold. The country reached middle-income status in 2004 and became a Group of Twenty (G20) member in 2008. Poverty levels fell to single digits for the first time in 2018.
Despite this progress, fostering inclusive and sustainable economic growth remains a challenge in Indonesia. Poverty is still significant, inequality and regional income disparities are relatively high, and quality jobs are scarce. To address these challenges, the Government of Indonesia’s medium-term development priorities include building economic resilience to achieve quality and equitable economic growth; promoting economic infrastructure and basic services; developing quality and competitive human capital; addressing environment and climate change; and supporting regional development.
At the same time the EU were setting themselves a major challenge to counteract the surge in made –made cause of environmental degradation by “Turning an urgent challenge into a unique opportunity:
THE EU COMMISSION’S GREEN DEAL”.
Here is an extract from their own brief.
“This communication sets out a European Green Deal for the European Union (EU) and its citizens. It resets the Commission’s commitment to tackling climate and environmental-related challenges that is this generation’s defining task. The atmosphere is warming, and the climate is changing with each passing year. One million of the eight million species on the planet are at risk of being lost. Forests and oceans are being polluted and destroyed.
The European Green Deal is a response to these challenges. It is a new growth strategy that aims to transform the EU into a fair and prosperous society, with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy where there are no net emissions of greenhouse gases in 2050 and where economic growth is decoupled from resource use. “
“The EU has the collective ability to transform its economy and society to put it on a more sustainable path. It can build on its strengths as a global leader on climate and environmental measures, consumer protection, and workers’ rights. Delivering additional reductions in emissions is a challenge. It will require massive public investment and increased efforts to direct private capital towards climate and environmental action while avoiding lock-in into unsustainable practices. The EU must be at the forefront of coordinating international efforts towards building a coherent financial system that supports sustainable solutions. This upfront investment is also an opportunity to put Europe firmly on a new path of sustainable and inclusive growth. The European Green Deal will accelerate and underpin the transition needed in all sectors.”
“The environmental ambition of the Green Deal will not be achieved by Europe acting alone. The drivers of climate change and biodiversity loss are global and are not limited by national borders. The EU can use its influence, expertise and financial resources to mobilise its neighbours and partners to join it on a sustainable path. The EU will continue to lead international efforts and wants to build alliances with the like-minded. It also recognises the need to maintain its security of supply and competitiveness even when others are unwilling to act.”
The EU will continue to ensure that the Paris Agreement remains the indispensable multilateral framework for tackling climate change. As the EU's share of global emissions is falling, comparable action and increased efforts by other regions will be critical for addressing the global climate challenge in a meaningful way. The debate on climate ambition will intensify in the coming months in line with the Paris Agreement provisions for regular stocktaking and updates.
The Conference of Parties in Glasgow in 2020 will be an important milestone before the global stocktake in 2023. It will assess progress towards achieving long-term goals. As it currently stands, it is clear that the level of global ambition is insufficient. The EU will engage more intensely with all partners to increase the collective effort and help them to revise and implement their nationally determined contributions and devise ambitious long-term strategies.
In parallel, the EU will step up bilateral engagement with partner countries and, where necessary, establish innovative forms of engagement. The EU will continue to engage with the economies of the G20 that are responsible for 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Stepping up the level of climate action taken by international partners requires tailor-made geographic strategies that reflect different contexts and local needs – for example for current and future big emitters, for the least developed countries, and for small island developing states.
THE POTENTIAL RELATIONSHIP WITH BAPPENAS
Given the stated commitment of the EU to realize this far–ranging and comprehensive “ Green Deal” across 27 countries, and every possible area of sustainability, and the equally important promise to “leave no-one behind”, in terms of partner countries, it is vitally important that Indonesia clearly declares what it might need from the EU in terms of expertise, research, technology, planning, resources and experience.
While it is understood that all these subjects will be opened on a confidential bilateral basis, we invited the Deputy Minister in charge of Infrastructure to clearly state their needs and desires of the resources needed from EU and explain how EU’s assistance can enhance and accelerate Indonesia’s progress to achieving the same goal here as aspired to under the Green Deal. This would involve quickly listing Indonesia’s goals and objectives and matching them with what EU can possibly offer, from both a grant and a loan perspective. The resulting discussions and presentations are freely available to MVB members by contacting Miranda on miranda@phoenix.co.id and may be made available to other applicants if an email submission is made to the same email.
THE SPEAKERS AT THE WEBINAR
• H.E. Mr. Vincent Piket - The European Union Ambassador to Indonesia http://eeas.europa.eu/indonesia
• Josaphat Rizal Primana - Deputy for Facilities and Infrastructure of Ministry of National Development Planning/ National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) https://www.bappenas.go.id/id/
• Henriette Faergemann - First Counsellor of Environment, Climate Action & ICT - EU Delegation to Indonesia http://eeas.europa.eu/indonesia
• M. Bijaksana Junerosano – Founder & CEO of Waste4Change https://waste4change.com/official/
• R.M. Soedjono (Jon) Respati – Founder & Chairman of Indonesia Energy Conservation and Efficiency Society (IECES, or locally known as MASKEEI) http://maskeei.id/
• Zoe Knight – Managing Director, Group Head, Centre of Sustainable HSBC Holdings plc https://www.about.hsbc.co.id/our-company/sustainability
Our own position in organising the webinar can be stated as follows:
MVB ADVOCATES SUSTAINABLE GROWTH THROUGH THE PRIVATE SECTOR AND CONSTRUCTIVE ENGAGEMENT WITH GOVERNMENT.
MVB is an organization dedicated to helping organisations, large or small, national or international, based in Indonesia to become more sustainable, across seven different critical value areas that MVB international sets as our main pillars. They are : Sustainability, Best Possible Business Practices, Ethical Employment, Safety and Security, Environmental Friendliness, Customer Service and Respect and Corporate Values.
We do this by introducing our members to specific areas of expertise in our seminar series and by introducing them to each other to seek areas of cooperation, collaboration and increased efficiency, and by enabling them to interact with our Knowledge Partners to establish exactly what skills and knowledge are needed to move them into a new phase of sustainability in specific areas of operation.
MVB has a very good record of stimulating progress in sustaibnability through its very well organised seminars and webinars. We believed that the EU’s Green Deal is the perfect way to stimulate anew wave of progress in Indonesia as the Covid crisis begins to reach its end. For our partnership with the European Union, we proposed to hold together this webinar with the clear purpose of introducing participants to the concept and workings of the Green Deal and to see how this experiance can translate to Indonesia . We also brought in private sector experts to see how they can and should promote their needs and requirements in this new paradigm. The presentationswere kept short and focused , with only four areas covered: The Green Deal Concept, Clean Energy , The Circular Economy and Green Finance.
For more details of how to organise a webinar/workshop or conference with MVB, contact aghie@phoenix.co.id
Access to presentations is restricted to MVB members only. However, we will consider requests which should be addressed to miranda@phoenix.co.id
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