VICE MINISTER FOR TRANSPORTATION REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA Opening Remarks ASEAN IN 2050: THE TRANSPORT SYSTEM AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, AND CLIMATE CHANGE BALI, 23 FEBRUARY 2012 Assalamu alaikum Wr. Wb., Ohm Shanti Shanti Shanti, Good morning to all of you, Distinguished Participants, It is a great pleasure for me to be part of this forum, discussing a very important matter organized by three prominent organizations in promoting better transportation and livable cities: the Institution for Transport Policy Studies (ITPS), Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), and Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI- Asia). I would like to extend my warmest welcome and greetings to all of speakers and participants of this Forum, especially those who are coming from abroad and participate in this seminar on the ASEAN in 2050: The Transport System and Its 1
Implications on Energy, Environment, and Climate Change. Welcome and thank you for your attending this event. This forum is a part of the ongoing study on Long-term Transport Action Plan for ASEAN (LPA) that aims to achieve low-carbon and sustainable transport. I would like to emphasize the significance of this study on the sustainability of our living space in the future, which will be crucial in the lives of our children and grandchildren. Climate change is a strategic development challenge faced by both developing and developed nations. Many Asian cities grapple with increasing economic prosperity, coupled with rapid urbanization and motorization, that affect pollution levels of the cities. Unless a more sustainable and low carbon transport policies and measures are put in place, we would face a degradation of the livability of our cities. Transport is currently responsible for 13% of all world green house gas (GHG) emissions, and 23% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fuel combustion are transport related. Transport-related emissions are expected to increase 57% worldwide in the period 2005-2030, primarily due to increasing transport fuel use in developing countries in Asia. Although air pollution levels in Asia megacities show a stabilizing trend, they still exceed World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. The majority of these increased emissions will come from land transport (which currently accounts 65% of global carbon emission), i.e. from private vehicles, both 2
for passenger and freight transport. China and India are estimated to account 56% of the global increase. Southeast Asian countries, the home of about 600 million people, when collectively accounted for, are also estimated to contribute substantially to the climate change problem. To deal with the growing threat of climate change in ASEAN, the challenge for the transport sector is to find and to implement a sustainable pathway for transportation that limit GHG emissions from transport and minimize other negative externalities without compromising economic growth and social inclusion. To successfully address this challenge, ASEAN will have to ensure that transport is increasingly integrated in climate policies and that climate becomes a standard and accepted part of transport policies. Global initiatives have been struggling to come to an agreement mitigating the climate change. The UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) aims to keep global temperature rise within 2 degrees Celsius. There is a dire need to maintain and establish lower carbon transportation systems in developing countries, and it should begin from the national and regional levels. While climate change remains as an important global issue, high fuel use, severe air pollution, road accidents and fatalities, and chronic traffic congestions are problems faced by many developing countries cities every day. Thus, lower carbon transportation systems should also address these issues. Promoting sustainable transport should be able to address these issues and to create more livable cities. 3
Furthermore, globally, transportation technology depends on petroleum. 95% of global transportation uses petroleum as its fuel. Data has shown that the world s petroleum will be depleted in the next 30-40 year. This indicates that we need to find alternative energy source for our transportation, which should come from new and renewable energy. Innovative approaches are required for land transport in ASEAN to make a sizeable contribution to such emission reductions. Policies and measures to avoid and reduce future emissions should focus on reducing the need for travel and by shifting travel to the most social, economic, and environmentally efficient mode of travel. This approach is labeled Avoid-Shift-Improve, and will be central to achieving the aim to reducing future emissions. Several examples of Avoid-Shift-Improve: 1. Avoid: smart work, car sharing, telecommuting; 2. Shift: urban commuter rail, BRT, intermodal connectivity center, pedestrian and bike infrastructure improvement, rail freight, maritime mode share freight; 3. Improve: fuel efficiency in aviation, eco-airport, logistic system, LNG truck, eco-drive, green car. This Avoid-Shift-Improve formula can be further broken down into four strategies: (1) minimizing demand for a trip; (2) minimizing motorized trips; (3) maximizing trips with public transport; (4) maximizing trips with environmentally friendly vehicles. (Susantono, 2006). 4
ASEAN is still developing rapidly and private car ownership is still low compared to the developed countries. This makes the Avoid-Shift-Improve approach an especially attractive option for the developing countries. It will enable developing countries NOT to follow the same path of developed countries in high car dependency, high energy consumption, and low public transport efficiency. In fact, with the unique characteristics of cities we have, we may choose and shape OUR future path of urban transportation by learning from the mistakes of various developed country cities, and draw some good lesson learned, to be adapted, and adjusted to our local social, economic and political condition. The Government of Indonesia has confirmed that early actions in mitigation and adaptation efforts will be strategically and economically beneficial for the country. At the COP (Conference of Parties) 15 th in Copenhagen in December 2009, Indonesia committed to reduce the carbon emission by 26% in 2020 (up to 41% with international support) from its business as usual. The reduction target of 26% will be reached through 3 main sectors: forestry 14%, waste 6%, energy 6%. Reduction in the energy sector will come from four areas: powerplant, manufacturing, household and transportation. Transportation may contribute up to half of the reduction in energy sector. As one of the important steps in the mitigation of climate change, the Government of Indonesia has finalized two plans. First, the National Action Plan 5
on Green House Gas Emission Reduction (Presidential Decree No. 61/2011 signed on 20 September 2011). This document consists of action plans in various sectors including transport sector and acts as an opportunity to evaluate and develop strategic options in reducing emission without compromising the development goals. This plan is currently being consolidated with the Provincial Action Plan on Green House Gas Reduction. Second, the Presidential Decree on the National Green House Inventory (Presidential Decree No. 71/2011). It stipulates methods and guidance for calculating and reporting emission reduction. Indonesia will face energy crisis if it is not careful in managing the energy sources needed to fuel its growing transportation needs. Indonesia s petroleum reservoir contains only 9 billion barrels of oil, whilst the annual consumption stands at 0.45 billion barrels. This means that Indonesia will run out of oil in 18-20 years if we continue to use oil with business as usual scenario. To anticipate this problem, the Government of Indonesia has issued Presidential Decree No. 5/2006 on National Energy Mix in 2025. The focus will shift from fossil to non-fossil fuel. By 2025, the energy mix should consists of 30% natural gas, 33% coal, 20% petroleum, 5% biofuel, 5% geothermal, 5% other renewable sources, and 2% liquid coal. The transport sector is one of the sectors whose short-term mitigation attempts may give significant impacts to carbon intensity reduction. Some of the possible actions in this matter is by (1) providing alternative fuels (CNG, biofuels, hydrogen, and electricity); (2) modal shift and Transport Demand Management; 6
(3) non-motorized transportation; and (4) Intelligent Transport System. In fact, we in Indonesia are now trying to do our best to implement these measures in various cities. Green House Gas emission could be reduced with traffic restrain measure. Nevertheless, this strategy may only be successful if accessibility to public transportation is guaranteed. Urban railway transport is effective to serve a large number of passengers in cities with high density of population. Bus rapid transit is also a good mass rapid transit that requires less investment compared to railway transport. We, in Indonesia, is now trying to introduce the BRT in more than 13 cities. Not only that, we also try to combine BRT with Intelligent Transportation System (ITS). Through ITS, we can provide transport users with the real time information on the various conditions of traffic and other transportation related features. ITS is potential in reducing fuel usage and emission by reducing unnecessary vehicle movement. In Jakarta, you can keep track on taxi that your order from your gadget. You may also surf the web to see the traffic condition so that you can choose the most favorable routes you want to take. Facilitating non-motorized transport is also an effective way to reduce transportation demand if the land use planning can be integrated with transportation planning to ensure that residential areas development is created within walking or cycling distance to the commercial areas. Several superblocks development in our metropolitan cities are now trying to implement the TOD 7
concept (transit oriented development), and the job-housing balance or colocation. Another initiative that is now becoming more and more popular is the implementation of car free days on the week end. Many cities are now trying to make every effort to fulfill the public growing demand on having various art and leisure activities on the street, without being bothered by motor vehicles. In my observation, there is now enough public awareness at a grass root level to try to think on the direction of livable transportation where people accessibly is the norm, and not the car mobility. I do hope that in this important seminar we could share and exchange ideas in the form of new policy, system, technology, and experiences, which will lead toward sustainable transport. I wish you all a very fruitful discussion, and enjoy your stay in Bali. Wassalamualaikum Wr. Wb. Ohm Shanti Shanti Shanti Ohm. Bali, 22 February 2012 VICE MINISTER FOR TRANSPORTATION BAMBANG SUSANTONO 8