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The estimated number of islands belonging to the Indonesia’s archipelago is usually estimated to be between 17,500 to 18,300. But that number could drop dramatically in the future, as the government believes that sea level rise caused by climate change could cause as many as 2,000 of those islands to disappear off the face of the Earth.
That was the warning conveyed by Lin Che Wei, Indonesia’s Special Staff of Coordinating Economics Minister, while chairing a panel at the Indonesia pavilion in Paris, France, at the COP 21 Summit on Climate Change on Wednesday.
“According to the data from the Ministry of Marine and Fisheries, as many as 2,000 islands in Indonesia are at risk of sinking,” said Lin, as quoted by Tribunnews.
Lin said the loss of those islands could be enormous, not just for the people living in and around them, but also for the country’s economy.
However, despite how hard climate change could affect its islands, Indonesia is not a member of the Small Island Developing State (SIDS), a coalition of small island nations that are pushing for massive cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions that would limit climate change to an average increase of 1.5 degrees celsius. Instead, like most other large developing nations, Indonesia is pushing for more moderate emission cuts that would lead to an average 2 degree celsius increase over the next few decades.
Indonesia has pledged to cut its emissions by 29% by 2030, but critics say even those cuts are insufficient, especially when they do not take into account the massive amounts of pollution released by Indonesia’s annual forest fires.
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