Our Problems and Our Protests (ongoing progress)
Since 2017, I started to follow environmental related issues in Indonesia. The situation escalated in 2018 as the Swedish climate activist Gretha Thunberg, then 15 years old, staged a climate protest outside of the Swedish parliament. Thunberg’s rally has sparked youth-led climate strikes around the world.
One year later in front of Indonesia's State Palace, hundreds of environmental activists, students and children joined others around the world to rally against climate crisis as part of the Greta Thunberg-inspired Global Climate Strike. Indonesian climate defenders claimed the protest was the biggest of its kind in the country's modern history.
Carrying handmade placards, the protesters gathered in a park near the Cut Meutia Mosque in Central Jakarta before making their way to Aspiration Park in front of the State Palace. Some of the slogans written on their posters were "Save Our Planet," "No Planet B" and "Land on Mars is Expensive." The march to the State Palace also featured solar-powered bikes and cars. The protesters demanded that President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo make concrete steps to reduce fossil fuel consumption and make the switch to renewable energy. They also criticized the government for its negligence and insensitivity in dealing with massive forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
After the second wave corona virus pandemic in 2021, environmental activists, students, and children returned to the streets to express their disappointment with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s COP26 speech. The climate advocates dismissed Jokowi’s speech at the world leaders’ annual meeting as nonsense.They urged that the country’s development must take into consideration environmental aspects, including stopping new permits for coal-powered plants. Zero deforestation, National Gender Action Plan ratification, as well as an increase in the emission reduction targets, are among their demands.
A year later in 2022, the demonstrants back to street to criticized the government’s indifference towards the climate crisis. Residents of Roban Timur, Batang, in Central Java were also seen joining the climate strike. The Roban Timur residents were protesting against the steam-powered plant in Batang, which they believed had polluted the ocean. The demonstrants also called for President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to make immediate systemic changes to address the climate crisis.
