http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/article/15675263/indonesia-climate-efforts-surpass-australia/

 

A top climate change advisor in Jakarta says Indonesia can slash carbon emissions by more than three times the rate in Australia.

 

The announcement follows today's recommendation by the Climate Change Authority to keep Australia's current renewable energy target - the percentage of electricity generation to come from renewable sources - fixed at 20 per cent by 2020.

The head of an Indonesian climate change taskforce, Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, says the country can achieve its ambitious emissions reductions targets despite corruption hindering efforts to reduce deforestation.

Indonesia plans to reduce carbon emissions by cutting deforestation, using international carbon markets and providing incentives to protect forests to achieve its goal to cut domestic emissions by between 26 to 41 per cent by 2020.

When methods of calculation are compared, the figures are more than three times Australia's domestic efforts.

Mr Mangkusubroto says forestry accounts for more than 60 per cent of Indonesia's carbon emissions, and a law is being introduced to crack down on corrupt forestry deals to prevent local officials grant logging licences in order to get cash support for their re-election.

Opponents of Australia's renewable energy target say it should be cut because power use is declining.

But the authority's David Karoly has defended the decision to keep the current target.

"While there is an increased cost, that's part of the fact that there's in fact an increased reduction in greenhouse gas emissions," he said.

The authority says adjusting the target would also hurt investor confidence.