Java most vulnerable to climate change: Study
Adianto P. Simamora , THE JAKARTA POST, Sunday, May 10, 2009 10:36 AM
A study released by the Singapore-based Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA) has revealed Indonesia's most populated island of Java is the most vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change.
The report showed that Jakarta's five municipalities were the most vulnerable in Southeast Asia, with a higher than expected susceptibility to natural disasters including floods, landslides, drought, sea-level rises and tropical storms.
State Minister for Environment Rachmat Witoelar said the report should serve as a warning to cities in Indonesia to take action to minimize the ramifications of climate change.
"The way to beat this is to improve spatial planning in each city, otherwise the serious impacts of climate change, as reported by EEPSEA, will become reality," Rachmat told reporters Thursday.
Many local administrations had not made spatial planning a priority when developing new cities, aggravating environmental problems.
"The risks posed by climate change should be approached not only in the mid-term strategic plan, but also in policies and institutional structures. The cost of climate change outweighs the cost of mitigating the disaster," he said.
In regards to Jakarta, Rachmat called on the city administration to control population growth in the capital.
"I don't know what should be done to overcome population problems, but like or dislike, there has to be a limitation on the number of newcomers entering the city."
He said Jakarta was capable of accommodating around one million people, but the figure had now reached somewhere around 9 million.
"Jakarta is really overcrowded. The environment is always the first victim of such a large population," he said.
The EEPSEA report was the second study published by an international body confirming the serious impact climate change will have in Indonesia.
The Asian Development Bank, in its report last week, warned that thousands of small islands in Indonesia could disappear if sea levels rise as a result of global warming.
The EEPSEA study called on spatial distribution data looking at various hazards in 530 sub-national areas across Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Based on the mapping assessment, the study said all regions of the Philippines, the Mekong River Delta system in Vietnam, almost all regions of Cambodia, North and East Laos, the Bangkok region of Thailand and West Sumatera, South Sumatra, West Java and East Java were also among regions in Southeast Asia at risk of devastation from climate change.
"But in our overall assessment, the districts of Jakarta emerge as the most vulnerable region in Southeast Asia," an expert from EEPSEA, Arief Anshory Yusuf, said. The EEPSEA assessed Jakarta's history of natural disasters in the period from 1980 to 2000, along with those of 530 other areas in Southeast Asia.
The results were drawn up by considering each area's exposure to natural forces and its ability to adapt to such threats, and comparing those findings with the vulnerability assessment framework of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The EEPSEA was established in 1993 to support research and training in environmental and economics studies. It is supported by the International Development Research Center, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Canadian International Development Agency.
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