Climate Sense

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information about crop plantation seasons and crop variety. For the

energy sector, the aim is for Indonesia to become self-sufficient and

look at using wind and solar energy. For the infrastructure sector,

the aim is to develop Indonesia’s water resources, have roads with

proper drainage, and build water reservoirs below roads. For coastal

zone infrastructure, the adaptation programme is looking to set up

wave barriers, sand dune protection and buffer pools as sea levels

rise. For tourism, the adaptation strategy is to adequately support

the planning and design of facilities and tourist attractions. For the

forestry sector, such programmes as the Reduced Emission from

Degradation and Deforestation programme and the National Forest

Rehabilitation programme have been set up. Efforts are also under-

way to mitigate the occurrence and severity of forest fires. Finally,

for the water resource sector, the adaptation programme is dealing

with the operational improvement of dams.

Guided by the National Action Plan on Climate Change,

the IPCC assessment report and outcomes of United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), each

sector has developed these action plans to meet the Indonesian

government’s midterm (five years) government policy strategy to

restructure according to climate change. This government policy is

derived from long-term climate scenario projections and BMKG is

playing a major role in this, by providing all the climate informa-

tion required. In 2009, the government also set up a new legislative

act on meteorology, climatology and geophysics. This new act will

endorse the strong participation from all community levels, as well

as weather, climate and geophysics information services. The act

will also put more pressure on relevant stakeholders to strengthen

weather and climate data systems for the use of the nation.

International roles

The Indonesian government has been particularly active in partici-

pating in international climate debate and policy making. The 2007

Bali Action Plan, a result of the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties

(COP) 13, was a momentous event for climate change policy under

the UN framework. This action plan has set Copenhagen COP15

up to replace the aging Kyoto Protocol with a new regime. Other

international level climate events have been equally successful.

The Manado World Ocean Conference in Indonesia,

for example, which focused primarily on the effects

of climate change on the ocean, led to the May 2009

Manado Ocean Declaration.

Further highlighting its commitment to dealing with

the scientific issues of the climate change, Indonesia

will host the 31st Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change session in October 2009. It is also playing an

active role in the preparation for the World Climate

Conference-3 in 2009.

At a regional level, BMKG is actively involved as a

subcommittee on meteorology and geophysics research.

It is engaged in several activities including regional train-

ing on climate modelling and the training of regional

meteorological service officers in agroclimatology.

What is still left to do?

Despite Indonesia’s ongoing efforts to deal with climate

change, it is still suffering from inadequate climate informa-

tion services. Besides its lack of facilities, the country is still

limited in its knowledge of climate issues and lacks a basic

understanding of how climate change really occurs and how

it will impact in the long-term. Knowledge of events related

to climate phenomena such as monsoons, for example, is

also weak. This is largely because basic climate informa-

tion is still derived from statistical analyses rather than from

dynamical analyses and decisions are made based on indi-

rect output from other regional climate centres. There is

a need, therefore, to have better tools for climate analysis

and to promote enhanced cooperation between established

climate centres across the country to improve the provision

of information.

Considering the vastness of Indonesia, there is

a vital need to develop a regional analysis and data

assimilation technique. Future climate prediction

must also incorporate ocean climate models. At the

moment, information about the region’s surrounding

marine climatology is not well developed and estab-

lishing even a basic knowledge of the ocean around

the region requires considerable effort. For all of these

reasons, BMKG is advancing its research and devel-

opment division to overcome these problems. BMKG

must also look to improve its performance by provid-

ing better climate data with an integrated system. In

the future, BMKG will develop a national meteoro-

logical climatological early warning system to detect

climate extremes.

Finally, making the public aware of the importance

of climate information is essential. Although most are

already inherently aware of climate – since it affects

their day-to-day activities – a lack of true knowledge,

combined with the perception that extra informa-

tion is unnecessary means that general public climate

awareness is still low. Even in business and economic

activities, climate factors are rarely included in deci-

sion-making policies and climate is still not considered

enough when it comes to taking out insurance. These

issues are something BMKG needs to work on in the

near future in order to better provide for the region.

Climate field schools use climate information to help farmers optimize their

plantation period and increase agricultural produce

Image: BMKG