Activists from various environmental organizations walk towards the Monas Aspiration Park during an action related to the climate crisis on Jalan Medan Merdeka Barat, Central Jakarta. (Photo by Sigid Kurniawan / ANTARA Foto)
Source: Change.org Date: 25 September 2020
Water Crisis, Food Crisis, and Spread of Disease are the impacts of greatest concern
Coinciding with the Global Climate Strike action which will be held simultaneously in many countries in the world, including Indonesia on September 25, 2020, to voice the importance of action and handling the climate crisis, Yayasan Indonesia Cerah and Change.org Indonesia launched the results of an online survey.
The survey, which was conducted for about 2 months (23 July – 8 September 2020), was attended by 8,374 people spread across a total of 34 provinces in Indonesia, where the majority are respondents with the age range of 20-30 years who are active, young citizens and users of social media.
The survey was distributed through the Change.org Indonesia website and users, social media channels and chat applications.
The survey found that around 90% of active youth are either worried or very worried about the impact of the climate crisis. 97% of them think that the impact of the climate crisis is at least the same as or worse than the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The impacts of greatest concern include the clean water crisis (15%), the food crisis (13%), and the spread of disease or epidemics (10%). 19 out of 20 respondents believe that humans have a hand in causing the climate crisis.
“We have already seen how COVID-19 changes everything in a few weeks. The impact of the climate crisis is considered to be stronger in the near future. Many argue that the impacts of the climate crisis are already here today, and we must immediately deal with them. We conducted this survey to find out how the public’s perceptions, especially young people, about the climate crisis as consideration for designing strategies to deal with the impacts of the future climate crisis.” said Adhityani Putri, Executive Director of the Bright Indonesia Foundation.
According to respondents, the largest sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are forest and land damage and fires (38%), followed by vehicle and factory fumes (35%), and fossil energy power plants (coal, petroleum and natural gas) (23%).
Forest preservation, including stopping deforestation of natural forest, land-use change, and forest and peatland fires (28%) are considered as the most appropriate solution to minimize the climate crisis. The next solution is to convert fossil energy into clean and renewable energy (26%). Currently, the largest source of energy in Indonesia still comes from fossil energy. Such as coal, petroleum and natural gas. However, 91% of respondents believe that it is time for Indonesia to break away from fossil energy sources.
Government performance is considered to be the biggest obstacle in handling the climate crisis (63%), followed by a lack of public awareness (24%). Meanwhile, the economic condition and the high price of clean energy are considered to be the smallest obstacles (13%).
The commitment of the government, People’s Representative Council (DPR), and companies in handling the climate crisis is still considered poor, with the highest level of dissatisfaction towards the DPR. Even so, almost all believed that the climate crisis should be the top agenda in the government and the DPR with 79% of respondents agreeing that Indonesia is the world leader in dealing with the climate crisis.
At the level of policymakers, who do respondents think should handle it?
3 out of 5 people think that it is not enough to handle the climate crisis at the level of the Directorate General of Climate Change, but the climate crisis must be handled directly by the Minister or the President.
“As an organization that seeks to encourage public participation in every policymaking, we see that the high participation of young respondents in voicing their concern for the climate crisis through this survey is very encouraging. Of course, their voices must be followed up and get the attention of policymakers at the government and DPR levels in dealing with the climate crisis,” said Arief Aziz, Country Director of Change.org Indonesia.
Source link: change.org/l/id/press-release-krisis-iklim-di-mata-anak-muda
