Greenhouse Gas Accounting in Indonesia

SIG Identifies 1 Million Tons of Emissions Reduction

SIG’s GHG Modeling Expertise Uncovers Significant Mitigation Opportunities

As part of the USAID funded Millennium Challenge Corporation, Spatial Informatics Group teamed up with project lead ICF International to develop a greenhouse gas (GHG) emission accounting framework.

Growth in Indonesia Stresses the Environment

Economic growth in Indonesia is placing increasing pressure on the natural environment, posing risks to both growth and poverty reduction. The Green Prosperity Project in Indonesia invested more than $330 million to address the nation’s poorly developed infrastructure by reducing reliance on fossil fuels and reducing GHG emissions through improved management of natural resources. The goal was to support low carbon development and the protection of natural capital to increase household incomes.

Greenhouse Gas Modeling for Change

Accordingly, SIG’s expertise in GHG emissions modeling was a crucial part of the project. SIG’s experts first surveyed recent scientific literature on GHG accounting methodologies and proposed specific approaches for this project.

Then, we documented downstream and secondary GHG emissions issues not included in existing methodologies. These included emissions from fertilizer use and from soil loss. This holistic approach provided SIG with options for modeling emissions across sectors and project types. These included social forestry projects that reduce peatland degradation as well as improved biomass energy projects that also promote reforestation.

Identifying Protocols

SIG’s experts recommended GHG accounting options, performed pilot testing of the tools, identified additional data gaps, proposed data collection protocols, performed quality control on data and the systems that collected them, and reviewed ICF’s GHG Calculation Tool. Ultimately, SIG then reviewed emissions reductions for each project type within the Green Prosperity Project.

A Million Tonnes of Emission Reductions Every Year

Ultimately, SIG’s analysis addressed 65 different projects in Indonesia, comprising total GHG reductions of close to one million tonnes of CO2 annually.

Climate Change