Fitrian Ardiansyah, program director of climate and energy at WWF-Indonesia, will be in Copenhagen for the UN Climate Change Conference this week. The Jakarta Posts Tifa Asrianti talked to him about some important environmental issues.

The Copenhagen meeting is the 15th meeting on carbon emissions since the Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997. The Protocol itself was the first international commitment to controlling emissions in which developed countries were asked to cut 5 percent, between 2008 and 2012, off carbon emission figures recorded in 1990.

The countries signing the Protocol are, among others, European Union state members. Australia, New Zealand. Japan and Canada. The United States has yet to involve itself in the Protocol. The developed countries got the first round of cuts because their advanced industrial activities have contributed more to emissions than the developing ones.

According to expert analysis, die 5 percent emission cut is not enough, as the world needs to cut between 25 and 40 percent from the total emissions recorded in 1990. This is what negotiations have been about, from the Bali meeting to Copenhagen.

The developing countries can also contribute by cutting emissions, but it is only voluntary, not obligatory, and is recorded as a Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA). President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has expressed a commitment to cut emissions by up to 26 percent from ""business as usual"" (BAU) levels by 2020.

The 26 percent that President Yudhoyono mentioned was calculated from the ability of two sectors to reduce emissions energy efficiency as well as forestry and land use.One hectare of forest loss can result in 200-300 tons of carbon emissions per year. Therefore, if Indonesia loses one million hectares of forest per year, the amount of carbon released will be between 200-300 million tons of carbon, a significant amount for the whole planet.

As for energy efficiency, the government got the figure from the number of barrels of oil being used to fuel power plants.If we rum our air conditioners down from 18 degrees Celsius to 24 degrees, it can cut electricity costs and cut emissions. Switching tobiofuel and revamping public transportation also help cut emissions.