If Indonesia fails to implement a green economy, the President's target to make it a developed country by 2045 would be difficult to achieve, an official from the Ministry of National Development Planning (PPN) has said.
The green economy is a development model for preventing further climate change, which can damage the environment and harm Indonesia, Environment Director at PPN/Bappenas Medrizal said on Thursday.
"If we continue to do business as usual with no changes, this will increase our emissions. Even though the intensity of our greenhouse gas emissions decreases, but it seems that our projected emissions will be dominated by the energy sector and this needs to be addressed properly," he highlighted.
If Indonesia does not implement a green economy, the country's per capita income would not be able to reach the desired target of US$12 thousand–13 thousand for freeing Indonesia from the middle-income trap, he elaborated.
The usual business pattern with economic growth of 5 percent per year cannot boost Indonesia's per capita income and bring it out of the middle-income trap, Medrizal stressed.
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"We must be more ambitious to pursue an average economic growth rate of 6 percent per year, one of which is through green and low-carbon economy. We must be able to design this green and low-carbon economy process to immediately implement it," he said.
A green economy can encourage job creation and new green investment, he pointed out. It must also be implemented with the synergy of various parties, both the business sector and local governments, to mobilize investment, he added.
"I want to emphasize that the climate change issue should not only be considered as an environmental issue, but this is also a development issue because it is closely related to how we carry out development and investment in the country," he said.
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Recently at the global level, many countries have encouraged the implementation of the green economy, he noted.
Medrizal said he hoped, when discussing the green economy, the Indonesian government will not only discuss investment, the environment, or finance but the ecosystem as a whole.
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It is hoped that with the green economy, the economic transformation that has been designed by the government can be achieved, especially in terms of pursuing targets to free the country from the middle-income trap before 2045, he added.
"With a green economy, besides being able to achieve economic targets, we can provide a better environment for our next generation as a developed country," he remarked.
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Editor : Mahdani
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