B20 Task Force Provides Policy Recommendations on Energy Transition

0
358

The B20 Energy, Sustainability & Climate Task Force, led by state-owned oil giant PT Pertamina (Persero), has provided policy recommendations and actions for sustainable energy transition. The statement was delivered by Chair of B20 Energy, Sustainability, and Climate Task Force Nicke Widyawati during the 3rd stakeholder consultation task force energy, sustainability and climate sustainable finance held virtually on Friday (18/3).

President Director & CEO Nicke Widyawati delivers a speech as Chair of B20 Energy, Sustainability and Climate Task Force at the 3rd stakeholder consultation task force energy, sustainability and climate sustainable finance held virtually (18/3) (Antara/Azis Kurmala)

The Business 20, or B20, is an outreach group from the G20 that represents the international business community. “So as part of engaging group in the G20, the B20 Energy, Sustainability & Climate Task Force will provide policy recommendations and actions for sustainable energy transition with three focus on part of priority issue that trigger to the outline of President Joko Widodo’s directive,” Widyawati, concurrently the president director and CEO of PT Pertamina, stated.

In accordance with the directive President Joko Widodo had delivered at the G20 Summit last year, the G20 must become the curtains for bringing recovery and going hand in hand with the principles of energy security, energy equity, and environmental sustainability, she said. To this end, there were three focus areas.

First, accelerating the transition to sustainable energy use by enhancing global cooperation to accelerate the transition to sustainable energy use by reducing carbon intensity of energy use.

Second, ensuring a just, orderly and affordable transition by enhancing global cooperation to assure sustainable energy use across developed and developing countries, she said.

Third, enhancing global cooperation on increasing consumer level energy security by improving access to energy and ability to consume clean and modern energy.

The task force is aware of the importance of ratification of renewable energy based generation and energy efficiency as the main pillars of the energy transition and investment in technology and energy sector. The B20 Energy, Sustainability & Climate Task Force becomes a very valuable source for a range of perspectives, she said.

She stated that rising greenhouse concentration in the atmosphere is causing global warming leading to climate change, ocean acidification and biodiversity losses. “The largest contribution to greenhouse gas emission comes from the energy sector which makes the transition to sustainable energy use becomes the most critical challenges of our time,” Widyawati said.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates and indicates that the global average temperature last approximately 1.1 degrees Celcius above the industrial level. The consensus limit to avoid catastrophe climate change is being limited to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celcius, she said.

“So there is a limitation period that we have to take drastic action to accelerate net-zero emission and to curb greenhouse gas emission,” she said, adding that the carbon emission contribution from energy is in the range of 20 percent up to 36 percent compared to the deforestation which is in the range of 44 percent up to 62 percent, she said.

However, Widyawati emphasized, this cannot be an excuse for industry players especially in energy sector to not take part in reducing greenhouse gas emission. She said that global cooperation for government capacity enhancement institutionally formed market development, sharing of technology, and financing.

“In our policy recommendations, several parties involved in the energy, sustainable and climate task force G20 include co-chair from g20 business actors as well as more than 140 members that provide inputs in the directions of the policy recommendations and issue priority. The most important thing is aligned with stakeholders so the proposed policy recommendations and actions from our task force will be aligned with the directions of Indonesia’s policy in G20,” Widyawati said.

She said that the stakeholder consultation event aims to obtain inputs from the stakeholders especially regarding sustainable finance. The policy recommendations represented the views of business actors and finance sector institutions, she stated.

Meanwhile, B20 Indonesia Sherpa Rizal Affandi Lukman said that the continuous task force discussion was definitely important to collect relevant information, ideas and insights from a wide range of relevant stakeholders.

“We all have priority topics to be the basis of our works. However, without inputs from people who know exactly the trends of potential challenges on the ground as well as from different angels and perspectives, the recommendations will be just nice to read on the paper,” Lukman said.

The issues on energy, sustainability and climate are very relevant to many parties this day. B20 Indonesia is keen to hear the stakeholders’ concerns, feedbacks on numerous issues such as decarbonization, climate investment and financing carbon market ecosystem, and how sustainability project are reported and accounted, Lukman said.

This is a good example of inclusive and collaborative policy formulations, he added.

Contact: Fajriyah Usman, VP Corporate Communications, PT Pertamina (Persero)
Email: fajriyah.usman@pertamina.com, URL: https://www.pertamina.comn
Written by: Azis Kurmala, Editor: Rahmad Nasution (c) ANTARA 2022

LEAVE A REPLY