Daniel Stiles asks what do the climate and orangutans have in common. They are both threatened by coal - the first by burning it, and the second by mining it. At the recent United Nations Climate Summit in New York, world leaders and multinational corporations pledged a variety of actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation to avert a looming disaster caused by global warming.
Indonesia, home to most of the world orangutans, is a major player in both emissions and deforestation, with the third largest tropical forest area in the world, after the Amazon and the Congo Basin. In 2012, Indonesia surpassed Brazil as the country with the highest annual rate of primary forest loss. The country is also ranked the fourth top emitter of greenhouse gases in the world - after China, the U.S., and the European Union, during some years, largely due to high deforestation rates and peatland fires.
However, the Indonesia greenhouse gas emissions do not just come from deforestation, but also, indirectly, from its role as a major coal exporter. Burning coal is the largest single source of carbon emissions worldwide and Indonesia is supplying this industry. In fact, Indonesian coal exports have increased more than 500 percent over the last decade, from 60 million tons in 2000 to 304 million tons in 2012. This makes Indonesia the biggest exporter of thermal coal in the world.
It gets worse. The International Energy Agency -IEA- predicts that Indonesian coal production will continue to increase 4.8 percent annually through 2020, when it will reach 450 million tons. The majority of the production will not be burned at home, but will continue to be exported. By 2035, the IEA estimates Indonesia will produce 550 million tons of coal. Even two decades from now Indonesia is projected to remain the leading thermal coal producer and exporter in the world.
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