Ocean First: Indonesian response to climate change
Indonesian territory is just a huge archipelago. It is actually the biggest archipelagic country on the planet, with 17 thousand islands. It is touched by two oceans, the Indian and the Pacific, divided on two continents, Asia and Oceania, and its sea area it’s four times bigger than the land area. So it is quite understandable why this Asian country is particularly aware of climate change, facing the danger of ocean rise, the sea surface temperature rise and the loss of homes for more than 42 millions of coastal communities by 2050.
Indonesia, party of the Paris Agreement, is then calling all island nations, archipelagic States, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and coastal countries to meet in 2017 for the First Archipelagic and Island States Conference on Sustainable Oceans. Creating a place of dialogue within countries which face the same economic and climate problems is in fact felt fundamental for the Indonesian government, although Dr. Sofyan Djalil, current Indonesian Minister of Land and Spacial Planning, has declared himself optimistic that his country will achieve all the goals stated in the Paris Agreement and limit the distress its citizens face due to climate change. Estimating that by 2030 the 70% of Indonesians will live in urban areas, the government is already working on effective city development, in particular on the evacuation plans in case of natural disasters, which will always become more frequent.
Another Asian country which is putting much effort in cities’ sustainable development is Malaysia. Its so called “Forrest City”, a brand new green island city in the middle of the Indian ocean, between Malaysia and Singapore, will indeed be completed by 2018. Its high economic independency, pretty much inexistent carbon print and biodiversity conservation project make it the ideal of modern city, in perfect balance between humans and nature.
