Indonesia’s Climate Change Diplomacy

In the middle of the Covid-19 storm that continues to ravage the world, we cannot afford to be careless in tackling another major issue that is a global battlefield: climate change.

The year 2021 is a strategic year for the future of the planet and humankind. In 2021, we will see whether nations across the global can keep the earth\'s temperature from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius, as agreed in the Paris Agreement on climate change five years ago. Climate change diplomacy will pick up in 2021 because it has been delayed for a long time, and countries have been slow to keep their commitments since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015. Under President Trump, the United States even withdrew from the agreement.

To date, only about 50 countries have submitted ambitious emission reduction targets to the United Nations. The entities that are moving much faster than governments around the world are companies, mass organizations, NGOs and the younger generation. This is very worrying, because the window of opportunity to achieve climate stability is growing smaller.