Insights: WRI's Blog

The pandemic has forced us to rethink and find alternatives to make our food system more resilient. In December 2020, a report released by the High Level Panel for Sustainable Ocean Economy highlight the potential role of the sea in overcoming food insecurity and malnutrition and transforming our food system to become more resilient towards shocks and climate change. There are three ways how food from the sea can contribute to Indonesia’s food security.

Asia accounts for almost half of global energy demand and today is the world's highest emitting region, overtaking historical heavy emitters in North America and Europe. Despite economic challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries in the Asia-Pacific region continued to witness record-breaking growth in renewables since 2020. Here's some example from country in Asia in effort to achieve successful clean energy transition.

The 13th Edition presents the Top 5 Places to Watch indicated to be illegal logging areas from 1 January to 31 March 2021.

Forests have become the main topic of the United Nations Climate Change (COP26) in Glasgow, UK. The Glasgow Declaration on Forests and Land Use has been signed by 142 countries, including Indonesia. This commitment encourages Indonesia to not only end forest loss and land degradation, but also reverse the trend of deforestation. In order for this commitment to be fulfilled, collaboration from stakeholders is absolutely necessary, including from businessmen, civil society organizations as well as indigenous peoples and local communities. Tackling the climate crisis is a shared responsibility and good forest management is the way to go.

Peatlands are known as marginal lands and are ideally not intended for farming activities. However, due to the limited productive land and the increasing needs of people living in the peat area and its surroundings, some of the peat areas is used as land for cultivation. However, problems arise when cultivation activities are carried out not in accordance with the principles of sustainable peat management, thus causing peatland degradation. Paludiculture-based agroforestry can be a solution to this problem because its principles are in line with restoration efforts and are able to provide more economic and environmental benefits.

The concept of reaching net-zero emissions has grown from an emerging idea to a mainstream mechanism for countries, cities and corporations to drive emissions reductions and limit the effects of climate change.

Just two years ago, only a handful of companies committed to achieving net-zero emissions by mid-century or sooner. Since then, a wave of companies across sectors have adopted net-zero targets and are designing strategies to achieve these goals.

As an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, Indonesia is blessed with fertile soil and rich mega-biodiversity; two aspects that support robust production of local foods and in turn contribute to food security. Indonesia has 77 types of carbohydrate-resource food plants, 389 types of fruits, 77 types of protein-resources, and 228 types of vegetables. Instead, Indonesia relies only on rice and wheat as sources of carbohydrates. This is one of the factors that has led our food system to transition away from local food and toward national dietary convergence, a concept where people tend to consume homogenous foods, despite the availability of other local foods. Consequently, research shows that a lack of dietary diversity influences national food security.This tendency has had implications for the government’s food policy decisions. For example, the national government imported 41,000 tons of rice in July 2021.

Ozone occurs naturally in the stratosphere which protects people and the planet from harmful ultraviolet rays. Increased levels of ozone formed when pollutants from various sources react with each other and various respiratory problems. Reducing pollution is a complex governance challenge. However, these three approaches can help, namely (1) Better Monitoring of Ozone Levels, (2) Coordinated Strategy, Cross Borders, and (3) Engagement with Civil Society and Citizen Action.

Based on the Verisk Maplecroft report, Jakarta ranks first out of 100 cities that are predicted to be most vulnerable to the impact of the climate crisis. Some evidence of the city’s vulnerability include massive floods that occurred in early 2020, extreme weather, and the rising temperature. One way to mitigate these impacts is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide. Research proves that trees are one of the most effective carbon sinks and stores.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) report stated that around 4.8 million tons of plastic waste are not managed properly every year. Additionally, 620 thousand tons of them go into the sea and putting its ecosystem in danger. Meanwhile, marine health is very important for the economy and welfare of the people in an archipelagic country like Indonesia. Also, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a surge in the amount of waste that could worsen this situation. As a result, the government's efforts to target a 70 percent reduction in plastic waste in the oceans by 2025 and achieve zero marine plastic waste in 2040 through the realization of a circular economy are threatened.