President Obama and President Widodo of Indonesia Expand Cooperation on Clean Energy Development

Both presidents underscored their commitment to combating climate change and voiced their support for an ambitious and durable global climate agreement out of the Paris COP21 Climate Conference.
 

This White House fact sheet (10/26) explains the two countries’ expanded partnership on energy development. The partnership aims to promote clean energy technologies and policies to help meet Indonesia’s growing energy demands, improve energy access, and reduce energy-sector greenhouse gas emissions. So far USAID support for energy development in Indonesia includes nearly $18 million for Clean Energy Development and to build Indonesian capacity to reduce carbon in land use and energy. 
 

USAID (10/26) issued a press release about President Obama’s announcement to send nearly $3 million in humanitarian assistance to help Indonesia fight forest fires. The forest fires have been exacerbated due to the effects El Nino has had on drought conditions in Indonesia. 
 

Reuters (10/26) reported that President Widodo cut his trip to the U.S. short in order to return home to address the haze crisis caused by the ongoing forest fires.  
 

Separately, The Guardian (10/27) covered research from firm Verisk Maplecroft that states rising temperatures and humidity due to climate change are likely to increase unsafe “heat stress” days, causing south-east Asia to potentially lose 16% of its labor capacity over the next three decades. Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia are predicted to see the biggest losses in productivity.
 

As reported by the New York Times (10/26) rising heat temperatures due to climate change will also severely affect the Persian Gulf, with predictions that by 2100 areas of the region “are likely to experience temperature levels that are intolerable to humans.”