Filling the Room for Improvements in Roadmap for Sustainable Finance

By: Jalal.
What is clearly visible on Roadmap for Sustainable Financial? Having read the document several times, it seemed that the document can still be given constructive feedbacks. However, we need to first convey a sense of awe to those who had been instrumental in arranging; and a sense of pride for being a citizen of one of the earliest countries to have such a roadmap.
If we read the documents produced by UNEP Inquiry throughout 2015 and 2016, it is clear that sustainable finance means that the financial system that support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  Our Roadmap was launched even before the document The Financial System We Need launched by UNEP Inquiry. The said UNEP Inquiry document is considered the most authoritative in sustainable finance discourse.
The consequences are many. Our Roadmap utilized a sustainability model, namely sustainability pillars, that is outdated.  If the notion associated with the SDGs used, the latest sustainability model, nested, should be utilized accordingly. Likewise, to view SDGs as the goal for sustainable finance, we realise that mitigation and adaptation to climate change should only be one of the many components.
The Roadmap states that ongoing financial needs between 2015-2019 is Rp314 trillion per annum. Given the public budgets of Indonesia, which already reach more than Rp2,000 trillion annually, it seems that the figure is too small. Moreover, the private budget actually far greater than the public’s. When Ulrich Volz count in 2015, a reasonable value is Rp3.990-7.049 trillion per annum for the entire sectors that need to be made sustainable. How come the two figures are so different? Because our Roadmap only calculated the fund needed to reduce emissions.  Even the mitigation fund was calculated with the old abatement cost curve. There are no calculations for adaptation fund yet, also no calculation for other Goals of SDGs.
As stated by Mark Carney, Director of the Bank of England, “green finance can not be a niche.” It should be the mainstream. Therefore, improvement of the Roadmap must be addressed in order to put in place sustainable finance for the entire sectors.

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