Perspective in Indonesian Climate, an Update

The shifts of the climate have been encountered by lots of people from coast to coast, time to time and it’s also coming from human activities since the 1800s from the burning of fossil fuels. Greenhouse gas emissions are the main substances that make climate change which include methane and carbon dioxide. The prime emitters are mostly coming from fossil energy electric power plants, transport, buildings, industries, agriculture fields and farms, and land-use sectors [1]. The gasoline that most people use for their cars is one of them. All living creatures on Earth especially wild animals and humans themselves must put on their survival mode to survive from the impact of climate change. It can be seen from the intense and constant changes in environmental conditions such as recurring droughts, storms, heatwaves, rising sea levels, melting glaciers, and warming oceans [2]. In Indonesia, where the whole country’s main food depends on the availability of rice can also be impacted which will worsen the food supply. The study showed on South Sumatra and Great Malang on the indication of climate changes’ impact on the production of paddy/rice, that the agriculture system is very fragile to climate change, and it leads to the decline of paddy production in a few places in both regions. The study calculates the temporal data from 1980 – 2030 also shows a prediction that the paddy production will be grossly declined by 1,37% per year [3]. Global Climate Risk Index 2021 from Germanwatch listed Indonesia in 14th of a climate risk index for 2019 scored 24.83 with fatalities in 2019 ranked in 3rd position. This data shows that Indonesia has a high potential to be badly affected by climate change if there’s no prevention action taken soon. Seroja tropical cyclone that occurred in East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, and around East Timor from 3rd April to 12th April 2021 was one of the most destructive tropical cyclones after Kenanga cyclone in southern Java back in 2008, told by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency of East Nusa Tenggara (BNPB) [4]. The cyclone that killed at least 222 people, declining production of paddy, and high-risk of climate change fatalities; future proof that climate change affects and will vanish more people.

The climate disasters that happen from past to future create high susceptibility to climate change fatalities. The susceptibility itself can be determined by the infrastructure, food supply, and economic framework conditions. World Risk Report 2021 shows that Indonesia is ranked 40th in high risk, scoring 10.39 in the 7.59 – 10.75 range. The susceptibility of Indonesia is classified as medium, but Indonesia still faces an exceedingly high exposure component in which is determined as the risk of getting earthquakes, storms, floods, drought, and sea-level rise.