At the G-20 Summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, the impression was that host Joko Widodo was everywhere at the same time. On Sunday he announced an initiative for a pandemic fund. On Monday, he greeted the state guests but also sat down to chat with Joe Biden before he was ushered a few meters to his meeting with Xi Jinping. Jokowi, as he is called in Indonesia, met Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and then appeared at the media center, surrounded by journalists like a boy band singer.

Anyone who thinks he’s been there twice isn’t even wrong, because at the international conference on “Digital Transformation” Joko Widodo can also be admired as an avatar. Digitalization was supposed to be one of the big topics at the G-20 meeting until war destroyed everything. Not only did heads of state meet with their delegates at the summit in Bali, initiatives were also launched here that ideally make the world a little bit better. Widodo digital talks about network possibilities, about the “digital islands” that Indonesia should be aiming for. The world’s largest Muslim country of 280 million people is a rapidly developing and widespread island nation, with pressing transport and communication problems.

On Tuesday night, even before the first reports of the rocket attack on Poland circulated, Widodo held a joint press conference with US President Joe Biden and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Union Commission. They presented a new project “International Partner Group” (IPG), a plan for the transformation of energy generation methods as equitable as possible. The project is called the “Just Energy Transition Partnership” (JETP).

Commitment to stringent climate targets

Achieving growth without increasing CO₂ emissions is a pressing issue for the future, especially in dynamic developing countries like Indonesia. In Europe, per capita CO₂ emissions are currently eight tonnes per year, in the US 11.6 tonnes. “As I have discussed with my Canadian friends, we have an obligation to deal with countries that are not the root cause of many of our problems but are now struggling with great difficulty,” the US president said in his speech at the meeting.

In Asia, where 59 percent of the world’s population lives, 4.1 tons are produced per capita. In China already 6.6 tonnes. You don’t want to go any further down this path. In a joint statement, Biden, von der Leyen and Widodo have now announced a commitment to stricter climate targets and also listed the funding needed. The partners want to provide $20 billion in the next three to five years. Half of that amount was raised by members of the IPG, which in addition to the US also includes Japan, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway and the United Kingdom.

This is the second such agreement, following the launch of JETP with South Africa at last year’s Glasgow climate summit. An estimated US$600 billion will be made available worldwide for such projects over the next five years. The money is meant to enable cooperation between industrialized and developing countries, as well as to promote sustainable infrastructure, health systems, and gender equality. Widodo stated that Indonesia is committed to creating a green economy: “This partnership will bring valuable lessons to the global community and can be replicated in other countries to achieve our common climate goals through real joint action.”

“Focus on the Global South”

Indonesia’s goals include reducing emissions, expanding renewable energy, and phasing out coal-fired electricity. Indonesia is the world’s largest palm oil exporter, and large-scale slash-and-burn operations are common there. Agriculture and coal mining are also strong economic sectors, and China is the most important trading partner. Coal-fired power plants continue to be built, the country is developing rapidly and needs energy.

India will take over the presidency of the G-20 in December, and the next summit is scheduled for September next year. Future host Narendra Modi referred to the motto again yesterday in Bali: “One Earth, One Family, One Future”. India, with only 1.8 tonnes of CO₂ emissions, wants to emphasize climate justice issues “and must return the focus to the Global South,” as Hindustani Time commented on Modi’s trip to Bali.

What remains of this summit is the hope that countries as diverse as China, Germany, Canada, Australia and Brazil will issue a joint statement calling Russia’s war against Ukraine such and classifying it as the greatest concern of its time. According to everything heard at this summit, this is also due to Joko Widodo’s tirelessness, regardless of what anyone thinks of his government’s policies.

At the end of the meeting, mangroves were planted, a “symbolic gesture against climate change,” said a spokesperson. Joe Biden jokes with Ursula von der Leyen as he reaches for his mangrove babies. Joko Widodo explains how many varieties there are and they can live up to a hundred years – if you don’t uproot them. Maybe the planting is also to make up for the cleared mangrove forests to make way for a toll road, which will later take state guests back to the airport to fly home.