Jakarta, IO – Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF) reported that global warming could cause a third of Indonesia’s islands to sink. The biggest cause of global warming is emissions from the energy sector.
Therefore, the Indonesian government needs to take preventive measures to address the threat of global warming, especially through the energy transition.
“We often hear that Indonesia consists of 17,000 islands. If we don’t make an energy transition, maybe only two-thirds will remain,” said Berly Martawardaya, economics lecturer at the University of Indonesia (UI), as per Katadata, Tue (17/9).
According to him, the regions prone to sinking are the northern coast of Java, eastern Sumatra, and southern Kalimantan. Global warming will also hit food production due to irregular rainfall that disrupt planting dates.
Meanwhile, greenhouse gas emissions produced by the energy sector, especially coal-fired power plants (PLTU) owned by independent power producers (IPP) also cause public health problems due to pollution. This subsequently leads to substantial increase in healthcare expenditure.
“It especially affects children and the elderly. So the costs are very high,” he said. (bp)