‘We should concern the tree’: Indonesian President requires sustainability collaboration at Stanford

“Do I seem like a member of the Stanford household now?” Indonesian President Joko Widodo, generally referred to as “Jokowi,” requested the viewers at Schwab Residential Middle as he confirmed off his crimson tie worn within the Stanford spirit. “Now you see how it is very important be linked to one another as folks, and so too is the significance of being linked to nature.”

Jokowi spoke Wednesday on the collaboration between Stanford and Indonesia on sustainability, as a part of the Doerr Faculty of Sustainability’s Dean’s Lecture Sequence, a discussion board that brings leaders to debate improvements in sustainability. He highlighted Indonesia’s current environmental achievements and sustainable growth for its new metropolis, Nusantara, which is able to change Jakarta because the nation’s capital.

Jokowi’s go to to Stanford was a part of his bigger journey to america for the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation (APEC) Financial Leaders’ Week held in San Francisco this week.  His speech at Stanford adopted a gathering with President Joe Biden on Monday concerning varied topics within the U.S.-Indonesia Complete Strategic Partnership together with mineral mining, maritime safety within the South China Sea and clear power transitions.

Dean of the Doerr Faculty Arun Majumdar expressed delight at Biden and Jokowi’s announcement of the great strategic partnership between the U.S. and Indonesia on Monday. 

“In our small means, we at Stanford want to carry that imaginative and prescient to actuality,” Majumdar stated, referencing Biden’s imaginative and prescient of a robust U.S.-Indonesia collaboration in quite a lot of fields, together with sustainable city growth, local weather financing and clear know-how innovation. 

Jim Leape, co-director of Stanford’s Middle for Ocean Options and former director basic of the World Wildlife Fund, stated the president’s go to will carry visibility to Stanford-Indonesia tasks comparable to local weather finance, clear power transitions, sustainable growth of Nusantara and sustainable aquatic meals.

“There are very thrilling analysis initiatives simply getting underway with companions in Indonesia, and his go to gives a pleasant increase to these nascent efforts that we hope are the start of longer, broader collaborations. [It’s] implausible to have the president right here, as these start to take off,” Leape stated.

Indonesia, the third largest democracy on this planet and fourth most populous nation, faces a number of sustainability challenges because it balances its plentiful pure assets, quickly growing economic system and sustainability targets, each as a nation and for its new capital metropolis, Nusantara. 

Jokowi known as Nusantara a “sensible metropolis,” with 70% of it being “inexperienced zones.” A botanical heart with the capability to carry 15 million tree seedlings per yr — 3 times as many bushes as are at present planted in New York Metropolis — might be planted in Nusantara and on the island of Kalimantan, he stated in an interview with the New York Instances. 

“It’s very uncommon that the world will get to design and construct a metropolis from scratch, and it may very well be a mannequin for the remainder of the world [on what] sustainable city residing is all about,” Majumdar stated, highlighting the sustainable city growth alternatives of Nusantara. 

Jokowi additionally invited Stanford college students to go on a “study-tour” of Nusantara, encouraging college students to study from the sustainable growth course of in particular person. 

“I’m a forestry graduate, so if wanted, I might be your information,” Jokowi stated. 

He spoke about Indonesia’s current environmental accomplishments, together with decreasing emissions by 91.5 million tons, rehabilitating 77,000 hectares of forest space and restoring 34,000 hectares of mangrove forests in a yr. He additionally raised Indonesia’s current efforts in constructing the most important floating solar energy plant in Southeast Asia, positioned in Indonesia’s Cirata reservoir. 

Jokowi additionally talked in regards to the giant and equitable investments wanted for “know-how switch and collaboration” in offering inexpensive power for folks in Indonesia and different growing nations within the power transition. 

Concluding the occasion, Majumdar and representatives from Indonesia publicly signed a joint assertion agreeing to discover alternatives to work collectively on analysis and training tasks in areas the place there are linkages between Stanford scholarship and Indonesia’s sustainability targets, together with tasks comparable to low-carbon financial growth, financing the transition to a extra sustainable society, assembly urgent meals priorities and constructing a brand new, sustainable capital metropolis.

Linda Mulyani MBA ’24, an Indonesian scholar, stated the general public signing of the joint assertion made her “really feel like they’re very critical about this.” 

“I really feel some sense of measured optimism,” Mulyani stated. “Because the President talked about, [construction] goes to take one other 15-20 years and there’s a presidential election arising subsequent yr.”

Jokowi’s go to to Stanford and Indonesia’s sustainability endeavors are additionally contextualized by Indonesia’s upcoming presidential election, throughout which Jokowi won’t be working for re-election. 

“The problem of sustainability is on all people’s thoughts on this planet. Whichever candidates are working are prone to take possession with the problem of sustainability. With the extent that the brand new capital metropolis is positioned [with] a story of sustainability, I feel it’s inseparable from what’s vital,” stated Gita Wirjawan, the previous Minister of Commerce of Indonesia. 

In keeping with Wirjawan, this go to is “vital by way of symbolizing what’s essential for humanity and what’s essential for the world going ahead.” 

“We will now not take a simple stroll,” Jokowi stated. “We should run quick. We should concern the tree.”