REDD FACES DEFINING MOMENT AT COPENHAGEN SUMMIT

“Still here, Pak?” Agus Purnomo, head of Indonesia’s National Council on Climate Change, was asked at 2:30 a.m. on Friday at the Bella Center, the official venue for the UN climate talks in Copenhagen.

“Still here,” Agus replied, wearily.

While other delegates in crumpled suits sought refuge and sleep on couches throughout the center, Indonesian negotiators worked into the early hours with other international representatives, leaving only to take a shower at their hotel and return.

Observers reported no real progress from plenary meetings held late on Thursday night and into Friday morning, a process to be repeated as the Jakarta Globe went to print early on Saturday morning.

“Negotiations are not going well,” Fitrian Ardiansyah, a World Wildlife Fund campaigner in Indonesia, said on Friday. The battle lines had been clearly set between the rich and poor, with the Group of 77 developing nations and China leading the fray.

Indonesia positioned itself as the developing country with a moderate voice in discussions. The nation’s lead negotiator on deforestation, Wandojo Siswanto, reiterated his desire to achieve a “realistic strategy for” Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation — the scheme aimed at assisting developing countries to preserve forests.

Many suggest that REDD will be the only legally binding agreement to emerge from the Copenhagen summit.

Indonesia has “common ground” with the G-77 and China, Masnellyarti Hilman, deputy minister for the environment, acknowledged on Thursday night. “But of course, Indonesia would like to have a deal here.”

“We’ve tried to do more than we have to, in terms of a target in REDD emissions and on [monitoring, reporting and verification]. This is our offer,” she said.

MRV became something of an impasse at the talks. China has been reluctant to subject its emission-curbing actions to independent international scrutiny, while the US has made MRV a condition of mobilizing $100 billion in financing for developing nations by 2020.

“For without such accountability, any agreement would be empty words on a page,” read the text of a speech by US President Barack Obama, who appeared at the climate talks on Friday.

Masnellyarti said, however, that Indonesia recognized the importance of accurate and transparent emissions data.

“How can we count reductions [in emissions] if we don’t monitor them?”

In his address to the plenary session on Thursday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Indonesia was willing to have its strategy and progress open to international scrutiny.

“Developing countries have to worry about their development and lifting millions out of poverty, and their budget is often strangled by the financial crisis,” he said. “But that is no reason to avoid transparency .”