October 21 2020 – Climate change funding support from various sources is an important part of the Indonesian Government's efforts to achieve action commitments to control global climate change, in accordance with Indonesia's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in Paris Agreement. To synergize joint efforts to fulfill this commitment, NDA GCF Indonesia proposed the formation of a focal point coordination forum, or national institution mandated as a liaison with climate change funding sources on Wednesday (21/10). Until now there is no formal mechanism that can accommodate integrated coordination activities between these institutions.

This opening meeting was attended by three focal points, namely, the Fiscal Policy Agency, the Ministry of Finance for the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Ministry of Environment and Forestry for the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the Adaptation Fund (AF) ; as well as three climate change funding bodies formed by the national government, namely, the Indonesia Climate Change Trust Fund (ICCTF) under Bappenas, SDG Indonesia One under PT. Sarana Multi Infrastruktur (Persero), and the Environmental Fund Management Agency (BPDLH) under the Directorate General of Treasury, Ministry of Finance.

This coordination is very necessary considering that until 2020, data on Climate Budget Tagging (CBT) revealed that the capacity of the Indonesian APBN could only meet 34 percent or Rp. 3,461 trillion (Rp. 266.2 trillion/year) of the total climate change financing needs. To meet the 66 percent funding gap effectively, a strategy is needed to access private and international funding sources. To meet these needs, this forum can become a platform to synergize and strategize various climate change projects in Indonesia so that they are effective, efficient and in line with national priorities. This is, among other things, to avoid multiple funding allocations for projects with similar activities, as well as to provide lessons for subsequent funders in similar projects.

In this meeting, options for forms of coordination that could be implemented were also discussed. Some of the things proposed are the establishment of an integrated list of project pipelines that can be accessed by the public and the sharing of information lessons learned regarding project design. This forum will study further the appropriate form of coordination for focal points climate finance in Indonesia. One example mentioned by PT SMI that might be adopted as a coordination mechanism is various coordination forums and similar ideas such as the Geothermal Committee. Discussions on this idea will continue until an agreement is reached between the focal points of climate finance in Indonesia. In the future, this forum can be formally inaugurated to be able to strategize steps to achieve the NDC and implement Indonesia's sustainable development.