A professor at Australian National University, Lorraine Elliott, gave a general lecture at Faculty of Social and Political Sciences UGM on Thursday (22/2). On this occasion, Lorraine presented global environment politics as her field of study field in international relations.
Lorraine presented the current issues regarding environment faced by many countries in the world, including climate change, deforestation, pollution, marine ecosystem damage, and so forth.
“Most of the countries in the world face those challenges although the condition is different in each country,” said Lorraine.
Climate change as well as other environmental issues, according to Lorraine, cause various uncertainties because the scientists have yet to fully figure out the long-term effects.
Therefore, the discussion regarding environmental management policies is currently arising at the global level and becoming one of the issues which are inherent in international politics.
“Those environmental issues become one of the important issues aside from other international political issues,” she added.
Environmental management policy at the global level, according to Lorraine, became quite complex because the established system tends to be fragmented and multi-level. On the other hand, it provides a clustering opportunity, however, it also causes ambiguity and uncertainty.
The general lecture also presented another speaker from the same university, Abidah Setyowati, who is an alumna from Faculty of Biology UGM and currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow of International Relations at Australian National University.
Corresponding to the environmental condition in Indonesia, Setyowati said climate change caused the loss of dozens of small islands in the past 10 years. However, Setyowati said Indonesian government was aware of the threat of climate change and made several important actions to address those challenges.
“Indonesia became the host of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2007 and it became a milestone for the Indonesian government in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions,” said Setyowati.
After the event, the commitment of Indonesian government continues to be voiced, one of them is by determining the targets of greenhouse gas emission reduction up to 29% in 2030 as well as making various roadmaps and action plan.
Although the realization of those targets has yet to be seen until the near future, Setyowati appreciates them as a form of commitment. If the plans can be implemented, according to Setyowati, it can make a significant improvement for the environmental condition in Indonesia.
“If the plans can be well implemented, it can revolutionary change the Indonesian ways of conducting development,” said Setyowati.