Climate change is now increasingly felt in urban areas in Indonesia, one of which being Samarinda City, which must now be prepared to deal with climate change and serves as a buffer for the IKN or the Capital of the Archipelago in East Kalimantan.

Flooding and landslides that have happened in various communities in recent years are two of the effects of climate change that are being felt in Samarinda today.

Local governments must commit to directing development work programmes based on climate change mitigation actions. The objective is to achieve sustainable development based on climate resiliency

Since 2020, the Samarinda city government has been chosen as one of the pilots of the Climate Resilient and Inclusive Cities (CRIC) Project under UCLG ASPAC, with the development of the Climate Action Plan (CAP) as one of the primary outputs). The creation of a Working Group (Pokja) as stated in the Mayor’s Decree Number 660-05/223/HK-KS/IV/2022 on the Amendment to the Mayor’s Decree Number 660-05/356/HK-KS/X/2020 on the Samarinda City Climate Change Ac/on Working Group strengthens the city government’s commitment.

As a member of the Climate Working Group (Pokja), Disaster Analyst Hamzah Umar of the Samarinda Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) stated that this project is an effort to mitigate environmental damage caused by climate change. This project will result in the creation of the Climate Action Plan (CAP) highly relevant to BPBD’s own goals. “This also intersects with our activities at BPBD in disaster risk reduction efforts,” he said on Wednesday, 23 August 2023.

He explained that climate change is causing a variety of disasters, including floods, landslides, forest fires, droughts, and water scarcity, particularly during the summer. “In recent times, this has become more frequent and severe, and the government is collaborating with UCLG ASPAC to develop a document that will help local governments increase their resilience to climate change.”, he stated. He continued to convey the city’s hope for this document to be used by all government agencies (OPD) to help them develop and implement climate change adaptation measures.

In this respect, Samarinda City received another training related to the Climate Action Plan (CAP) for the adaptation aspect, which is just as critical as mitigation and focuses on reducing the emission of GHG into the atmosphere. Climate adaptation, in this case is means of adapting to the existing and future impacts/effects of climate change. This adaptation training was abended by around 35 working groups consisting of various sectors in local government ranging from Bappeda, DLH, BPD, PUPR, Perkim, and we also invited community organisations such as GMSS and World Cleanup Day, to raisemutual awareness and design participatory programmes or activities in addressing the impacts of climate change in Samarinda City.

The second Adaptation training was also directly abended by Prof. Dr. Rizaldi Boer, Director of CCROM SEAP IPB and his team facilitated the second adaptation training. According to him, the government is committed to climate change mitigation, as evidenced by sidential Regulation 98/2021 on the Implementation of Carbon Economic Value for Achieving Nationally Determined Contribution Targets and Controlling Greenhouse Gas Emissions in National Development. “This regulation mandates government agencies to develop climate action plans based on baseline data. These plans will help assess the impact of development on climate resilience in cities and low carbon emissions.” he said.

The central government has taken several initiatives to develop guidelines for space utilisation and funding for climate change mitigation. However, according to Prof. Rizaldi, the challenge is for local governments to be able to use these tools effectively. “ Results of the CAP could be used by regions as a reference for developing short-, medium-, and long-term regional development plans. This will ensure that development policies are not influenced by changes in regional leadership.” he concluded.

During the training on reviewing monographic data and the condition of the Samarinda city area for vulnerability and potential impact analysis, Pak Yudi from DLH said, “Through this assistance, it is necessary to ensure that the parameters used are data that suit the needs problems of Samarinda city. The hope is to produce an informative and implementable document thatcan be used in regional development planning in Samarinda.”

Mr. Kusmawan from the Department of Food Security and Agriculture was interested in the method used to analyse vulnerability that is more detailed to reach the scope of the village. He asked CCROM-SEAP IBP experts if this method could be used to design programmes within government agencies so that activities and programmes can be more targeted and focused on specific issues.

CCROM SEAP IPB agreed that the indicators used in the vulnerability analysis can be adjusted to the needs of each government agency,and the criteria can be implemented by each agency’s programmes and activities.

The last day of the training discussed the results of the urgency of the Samarinda city area which identified several areas at potential vulnerability. Several government agencies also added information related to the suitability of the data and the existing conditions of the area based on the results of the analysis. This information will be reviewed with additional data, such as the area of impact of the area on disasters and flood-plain and other data needed.

Contributor: Kesuma Yanti, CRIC Project Field Officer for Kalimantan Region