Jakarta — Calls for stronger and more urgent climate action dominated discussions at the Indonesia Net-Zero Summit (INZS) 2026, with national and international leaders warning that delaying action on climate change would have profound consequences for humanity, economic development, and future generations.
Speaking before policymakers, diplomats, business leaders, academics, civil society organisations, and hundreds of young participants, Dino Patti Djalal, founder and chairman of the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI), described climate change as the defining challenge of the 21st century and urged Indonesia to become one of the world’s climate leaders.
“Climate change has become agenda number two or three or four or five in world affairs,” Dino said. “But climate change does not stop for anything.”
He argued that while the world is distracted by geopolitical conflicts, economic uncertainty, and technological competition, climate change continues to intensify.
“Climate is the superstructure that determines your health, politics, peace, security, economy, industry, migration, food, energy, water, jobs—everything,” he said. “If we don’t get climate right, we get everything else wrong.”
Dino warned that the remaining carbon budget to keep global warming close to 1.5 degrees Celsius is rapidly shrinking, leaving only a narrow window for meaningful action before 2030.
“We are running out of time and running out of carbon budget,” he said, adding that limiting warming is “a mathematical challenge, not an ideological one.”
He called on Indonesia to accelerate renewable energy deployment, protect forests and peatlands, strengthen its carbon market, and use its position in the G20 to promote ambitious climate diplomacy. He also encouraged closer collaboration between government and civil society in advancing climate action.
Closing his speech, Dino delivered a message to Indonesia’s younger generation, describing them as the last generation capable of preventing climate catastrophe.
“You are the last generation that can save humanity from climate catastrophe,” he said. “Climate change is the greatest fight of humanity.”
Minister of Environment Moh Jumhur Hidayat echoed the urgency, saying environmental protection is one of the few causes capable of uniting people across generations, cultures, and nations.
“I believe that the determination to honour and protect the Earth is one aspiration that can unite everyone—Gen Z, older generations, across ethnicities, religions, and nationalities,” he said.
Jumhur noted that Indonesia occupies a strategic position in the global climate agenda because of its vast tropical forests and biodiversity.
“Indonesia is extremely important in terms of environmental issues because of its large rainforests and extraordinary biodiversity,” he said, calling climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution the world’s “triple planetary crisis.”
Beyond mitigation and adaptation, Jumhur proposed adding a third pillar to Indonesia’s climate strategy: prosperity.
“We have mitigation and adaptation, but Indonesia must add prosperity,” he said, emphasising that climate policies should generate tangible economic benefits for local communities who protect forests, mangroves, and other ecosystems.
He said environmental restoration, carbon trading, renewable energy, and other green initiatives should create jobs and new income opportunities while supporting Indonesia’s pathway toward net-zero emissions.
Former Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, now serving as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Water, highlighted another dimension of the climate crisis: water security.
“There is no Net Zero without water security,” Retno said. “Water enables mitigation, water enables adaptation, and water ecosystems are climate solutions.”
Retno explained that discussions on net-zero emissions often focus on energy, transport, and industry while overlooking water, despite its central role in sustaining climate resilience.
She warned that although global progress has been made in expanding access to clean water and sanitation, improvements remain too slow and uneven, while water-related risks continue to intensify.
According to Retno, the world faces three interconnected water challenges: too much water through floods, too little through droughts, and increasingly polluted water resources. Climate change, she said, amplifies each of these threats.
“Climate change is a threat multiplier that worsens all water challenges,” she said.
Retno called for accelerated implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 6 on clean water and sanitation and stronger collaboration among governments, businesses, civil society, and communities.
“There is no individual or country that can tackle water challenges and climate change alone,” she said, stressing that cooperation across all stakeholders is essential to build water resilience “for the people, for the planet, and for prosperity.”
Throughout the summit, speakers converged on one central message: climate change is no longer a distant environmental issue but an immediate economic, social, and human challenge requiring coordinated action.
From accelerating renewable energy deployment and protecting forests to strengthening water security and ensuring climate action benefits local communities, the Indonesia Net-Zero Summit 2026 underscored that the coming years will be decisive in determining whether Indonesia—and the world—can still achieve a safer and more sustainable future. (nsh)
Banner photo: Founder of the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia, Dino Patti Djalal, opening the Indonesia Net-Zero Summit 2026 in Jakarta (tanahair.net)
tanahair.net is a media partner of the Indonesia Net-Zero Summit 2026
