Environmental inequality remains a challenge across Indonesia, with communities experiencing vastly different levels of access to clean water, healthy air, adequate housing, and other basic environmental conditions. These disparities reflect the interconnected nature of social and ecological challenges, including climate change, natural resource depletion, and the growing frequency of environmental disasters.
Indonesia’s Minister of Environment, Moh Jumhur Hidayat, said environmental considerations should be more closely connected with social development indicators to provide a more comprehensive picture of how environmental conditions affect communities.
“Social development serves as a vital bridge between human development and environmental development,” he said during the Fourth Congress of the Indonesian Association of Social Development (APSI), themed “Refleksi Perkembangan Studi dan Praktik Pembangunan Sosial di Indonesia” (Reflections on the Development of Social Development Studies and Practices in Indonesia), at the Fisipol Auditorium, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), on Friday (July 24).
Minister Hidayat said existing environmental indicators do not always capture the social dimensions of environmental problems. Fragmented data can make it difficult to understand how environmental conditions affect people’s health, productivity, livelihoods, and quality of life.
For example, information on access to clean water should not be considered in isolation. It should also be connected with data on disease prevalence, agricultural productivity, household conditions, and other indicators of community well-being.
A more integrated approach, he argued, would allow policymakers to better understand the relationship between environmental conditions and social development.
Minister Hidayat also highlighted the need to strengthen the implementation of Environmental Impact Assessments (Amdal) by incorporating social considerations more systematically.
He said current assessments often place greater emphasis on physical and environmental factors, such as land degradation and the distance between industrial facilities and residential areas.
However, environmental assessments should also consider whether communities are socially prepared to respond to development projects and whether the projects could affect social cohesion and integration.
“Amdal should also incorporate indicators of social integration and social preparedness, rather than focusing solely on matters such as how many meters should separate industrial facilities from surrounding land,” he stressed.
According to Hidayat, this broader perspective is particularly important because environmental development and social development cannot be separated.
Social development practitioners, he said, therefore face the challenge of understanding both dimensions simultaneously. They need to recognize how environmental changes affect communities while also understanding the social conditions that shape people’s ability to adapt.
Beyond strengthening environmental assessments, Hidayat emphasized the need to accelerate climate change mitigation efforts, particularly through reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
He acknowledged, however, that financing remains one of the biggest challenges facing Indonesia in achieving its climate commitments.
To meet Indonesia’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets through 2035, he estimated that the country would require around US$470 billion, equivalent to approximately Rp7,000–8,000 trillion.
Such a financial requirement, he said, cannot be met solely through the national budget. Indonesia therefore needs to mobilize alternative sources of financing, including carbon markets.
Hidayat pointed to both voluntary and compliance carbon markets as potential mechanisms for generating new economic value while supporting environmental protection.
“We must prepare for the emergence of a new economic activity that generates value by protecting and honoring life,” he concluded.
Through a stronger connection between environmental assessment, social development, and climate financing, Hidayat emphasized the importance of moving toward a development model that recognizes environmental protection and human well-being as interconnected goals.
Author: Fatihah Salwa Rasyid
Editor: Gusti Grehenson
Post-Editor: Priyanandaningrat
Photo: Magnific