Carbon Pricing

Carbon Pricing; what are they and how do they work?

Monday, August 23, 2021, a webinar was held with the theme “The Importance of Carbon Pricing Regulation in Indonesia”. This webinar aims to provide information on matters relating to the Carbon Tax, such as Indonesia's readiness in implementing the carbon tax in terms of human resources, technology, and compliance with applicable regulations. 

This webinar was held online through the Zoom platform which started at 13.35 and was attended by 85 participants. The opening remarks were initiated by Rini Wulandari, Head of the Regional Cooperation Sub-Section of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, and Jonathan Davy, Program Officer at FNF Indonesia. 

The first session began with a presentation from Billy Ariez, Director of the Radesa Institute, who discussed the challenges and opportunities of implementing carbon pricing in Indonesia. In his presentation, Billy said that the carbon tax was created because it can be a tool and a solution to bring low-carbon development, by paying attention to economic growth and poverty alleviation. The challenge is what form the tax will take, handled by whom, how to calculate it, the parties who will be taxed. Therefore, it is necessary to thoroughly study the implementation of this carbon tax. 

In the next session, Paul Butarbutar, Executive Director of METI and Co-Founder of IRID, discussed carbon pricing in more detail. In his presentation, Paul explained emission projections in Indonesia and mitigation strategies in the energy sector. Furthermore, Paul also gave an understanding of how the government is trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through various sectors. He also conveyed about how the implementation of the carbon pricing tax in various countries and what we can learn for its implementation in Indonesia. 

Last but not least, the last session was delivered by Dr. Joko Tri Haryanto, representative of the Fiscal Policy Agency of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia, delivering material on "Commitment to Climate Financing in Indonesia". Joko opened his session by conveying the condition of Indonesia's vulnerability and risk in facing climate change. He conveyed how the funding strategy in dealing with climate change at the national level and government regulations governing this matter. In addition, he also conveyed strategies to deal with climate change from an economic perspective carried out by the government, such as improving governance through climate budget tagging, innovative financial skills, climate change spending, and others. Joko closed the presentation session by giving an overview of how the existing policies in Indonesia in dealing with climate change with existing policies in other countries. 

*This contributed article is written by Arief Balie, who works as an intern for Climate Project in FNF Indonesia.