Governing sustainable low‐carbon transport in Indonesia: An assessment of provincial transport plans

Abstract

Over the past three years, Indonesia has tasked provincial governments with defining sub-national actions to help implement the nationally appropriate mitigation action (NAMA) it pledged to the United Nations Framework Convention (UNFCCC) in 2009. This paper assesses provincial plans in Indonesia's Sustainable Urban Transport Initiative (SUTI) -a set of transport plans that developed in parallel to its NAMA -focusing on three key questions distilled from sustainable low carbon transport and multi-level governance literature. The questions seek to shed light into whether provincial governments: (1) prioritize actions that avoid unnecessary travel and shift passengers to more efficient modes; (2) carefully consider funding and costs estimates; and (3) clearly define institutional roles and responsibilities. The assessment suggests that most provincial governments prioritize measures designed to improve vehicle efficiencies and shift to more efficient modes (rather than avoid and shift). Furthermore, there is little evidence of due diligence being performed in relation to estimating costs and seeking creative financing. Lastly, observations point toward low levels of cross-agency collaboration and weakly defined institutional responsibilities at sub-provincial levels. The results imply that Indonesia may encounter some of the same problems confronting developed countries such as the United Kingdom as they translate national climate targets into local transport actions. Three focused case studies suggest that provinces with greater population density, economic diversity, and experience with international organizations outperform other provinces. They may therefore serve as a useful model for sharing with other provinces that are further behind the learning curve.

Incorporating Air Quality Improvement at a Local Level into Climate Policy in the Transport Sector: A Case Study in Bandung City, Indonesia

“…Most cities in Indonesia face considerable barriers to address climate change; notably in coordinating policy action, obtaining resources, operating in national level frameworks, which do not always facilitate local action [34], and in the often-conflicting aims of climate protection and economic growth [31]. Categories involving policies and mechanisms, cognitions and capacities have advantages and disadvantages.…”

“…The CIT framework will analyse the co-benefits and actor characteristics. For developing countries struggling to deal with local problems, trying to implement climate change mitigation policy is often a step too far, which is why few cities in developing countries actually implement such policies [13,20,34]. Understanding the importance of governance in helping urban areas cope with climate change can provide useful lessons when designing tools for analysing and evaluating urban climate change programs.…”

“…However, they were involved at a later stage when RAN-GRK was finished. Provincial level governments developed their own GHG reduction plans [34]. Moreover, the provincial plans also became guide for local level governments to mitigate climate change in the transport sector.…”

Experience with LEDS and NAMA Low Carbon Strategies: The Case of Georgia

“…Countries on which studies have reported include: South Africa [23][24][25], Israel [26], Indonesia [27], Thailand [15], Brazil [28], Colombia [29], Peru [30] and Chile [31]. Moreover, numerous comparative studies have been conducted to explore barriers, enabling factors and effects [5][6][7][8].…”

“…In order to tackle these problems, cross-agency collaboration and coordination need to be enhanced. However, low levels of cross-agency collaboration and weakly-defined institutional responsibilities at sub-provincial levels are encountered in practice (e.g., [27]). Third, there is often a lack of financial support.…”