President Yudhoyono Co-Chairs Session Of U.N. Climate Summit On Forests

New York, Sept 23 (Antara) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg co-chaired the plenary 2 of the UN Climate Summit on forests at the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Chamber at the UN Headquarters, New York. President Yudhoyono opened the meeting at 3:44 p.m. local time, on Tuesday evening (early Wednesday in Jakarta), after which Prime Minister Erna Solberg spoke about his country`s views on conserving forests and preventing their destruction as a result of population growth and plantation industries. President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Joseph Kabila, Unilever CEO Paul Polman, Cargill CEO David Maclennan, and Golden Agri CEO Franky Widjaja also addressed the plenary meeting. Earlier in the day, President Yudhoyono also addressed the parallel session on national actions and ambition announcements held at the same venue. Yudhoyono, who was the fourth leader to address the meeting led by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, elaborated on the steps taken by the Indonesian government to address climate change through national policies. "In my view, there are two important elements of approach outlined in the Indonesian policies on climate change. They are multilateral cooperation and proper national actions to face the existing challenge," he noted. With regard to multilateral cooperation, Indonesia is of the viewpoint that all sides must intensify their efforts to reach a binding agreement related to the 2020 framework for climate change policies, he emphasized. "The agreement must also be linked to mitigation, adaptation, and framework for its implementation," he stated. Indonesia has adopted several strategies to address the challenge of climate change. First, setting a voluntary target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent in 2020 and secondly, reducing emissions and improving the living standards of the people residing near forests. The third strategy focuses on exploring the potential of the blue carbon ecosystem to assist the global efforts to avoid the average global surface temperature increase of 2 C and fourth, signing the Doha amendments and the Kyoto Protocol, he stated. The president asserted that the target of greenhouse gas emission reduction can be raised to 41 percent with international support.