What Measures is the Government Taking to Reduce Air Pollution? Citizens' Perspectives

The issue of poor air quality in several regions of Indonesia is currently a hot topic of public discussion. So, what measures is the government taking to address this problem?

Based on a survey by the Kurious-Katadata Insight Center (KIC), the majority, or 83.6%, of respondents believe that the government's efforts to reduce air pollution are focused on developing green open spaces (GOS).

Furthermore, 60.5% of respondents believe the government is promoting the use of electric-based transportation to reduce air pollution. This is followed by the implementation of car-free days (59.4%), establishing industrial emission standards and taking action against violators (56.3%), and taking action against those who burn garbage (40.6%).

There are also 28.3% of respondents who believe the government is trying to reduce air pollution by increasing the number of air quality measuring devices.

The Kurious-KIC survey was conducted on 512 respondents from various regions in Indonesia, with 54.6% male respondents and 45.4% female respondents.

More than half of the respondents were from Java Island excluding Jakarta (62.5%), followed by respondents from Sumatra Island (14.6%) and DKI Jakarta (14.2%). The proportion of respondents from Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Bali-Nusa, and Maluku-Papua ranged from 0.2% to 3.3%.

The majority of respondents were from the 25-34 age group (34.8%), followed by the 35-44 age group (29.9%) and the 45-54 age group (18.4%).

Data collection was conducted on August 21-22, 2023, using the computer-assisted web interviewing (CAWI) method, with a margin of error of approximately 4.31% and a 95% confidence level.

Recently, several local governments have been promoting the use of electric vehicles to reduce air pollution. One example is the Acting Governor of DKI Jakarta, Heru Budi, who plans to mandate the use of electric vehicles for officials at the rank of Eselon IV and above.

However, Abdul Ghofar, a pollution and urban campaigner at WALHI National, believes that these efforts are not relevant to the worsening air pollution. Ghofar stated that the Acting Governor of DKI Jakarta is merely amplifying the central government's wishes.

According to Ghofar, this is also related to the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment, which is currently intensifying its subsidy program for the purchase of electric vehicles.

"We must acknowledge that electrification of vehicles, in terms of transportation modes, does have low emissions downstream. But where does the electricity used for charging come from? The majority comes from coal-fired power plants (PLTU). Around Jakarta, there are about a dozen PLTUs in West Java and Banten," said Ghofar, as reported by BBC News Indonesia, Sunday (20/8/2023).

Similar sentiments were expressed by Bondan Andriyanu, the spokesperson for climate and energy at Greenpeace Indonesia, who considers the call to switch to electric vehicles a "false solution" if done without changing the energy source of the vehicles.

"If we want electric vehicles, there should be an energy transition; we must first change to clean energy, only then is that (solution) to be prioritized," said Bondan.