Subject: More specific suggestions for Jokowi's visit
From: Charlotte Pera <[email-masked]>
To: John Podesta <[email-masked]>
Cc: Milia Fisher <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 2015 03:16:36 +0000

John,

Following up on our conversation in Geneva, I told Chris Elliott, who directs the Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA), that if he had more specific suggestions to share in advance of President Jokowi’s visit to the U.S., you were willing to look at them.  Chris's team developed the suggested talking points at the bottom of this email.

Any feedback you have on these would be very welcome (e.g., if these points are still not useful for the upcoming visit, that would be good for us to know).  Of course, if you have any questions/information requests, we/CLUA would be happy to provide more information.

On a separate note: I hope you had an opportunity to meet the Pope during his visit to DC or NY.  Even via TV and radio, his US trip, coming on top of the encyclical, has been inspiring.

Thank you,
Charlotte
------
Charlotte Pera
President & CEO
ClimateWorks<http://www.climateworks.org/> Foundation
Assistant: Mark Quinn  | [email-masked]  |
T:   415-433-0552
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ClimateWorks mobilizes philanthropy to solve the climate crisis and ensure a prosperous future.
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Suggested talking points for deforestation focus in upcoming US – Indonesia Bilateral (from the Climate and Land Use Alliance):

1.     Indonesia’s 2020 BAU projection from the loss of forests and peatlands is almost 600 Mt CO2 per year, most of which is due to the expansion of monocultural plantations – primarily oil palm and fiber.

a.    These emissions involve fires and smoke that substantially affect public health and damage Indonesia’s economy. They affect air quality in Singapore and Malaysia leading to tensions with these countries. There are serious also conflicts with local communities and indigenous peoples over plantation expansion.

b.    President Jokowi has begun to express serious concern and has taken some action against the fires.

c.     The US can offer technical assistance in fire prevention and management.

2. Fires are used to clear forests for new plantations. However because there’s so much room for yield improvements and so much cleared land that is underutilized, there is in fact no need to clear new land.

a.    Low commodity prices, especially for palm oil, make the emission reduction opportunity especially timely.

b.    A number of leaders in the plantation industries have committed to the elimination of deforestation from their commodity production. The US ambassador in Jakarta has played an important role in fostering the consolidation of these commitments within the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce.

c.     GOI has slowly begun to take steps to support those commitments, but implementation remains challenging and the government is somewhat divided.

d.    There are significant investment opportunities for the US to promote investment in no-deforestation supply chains, and the US could work with GOI on a “deal” to promote investments to accelerate market transformation to no-deforestation commodity production, including

                                     i.     GOI Regulatory reforms to enable removal of high-value ecosystems from plantation concessions, including tax incentives, as well as compensation mechanisms

                                   ii.     Resolution of conflicts over land ownership, particularly the implementation of governmental commitments to formalize the legal rights of indigneous communities to their land and forest resources.

                                 iii.     Intensification of smallholder production, administered to incentivize forest protection and disincentivize additional land clearing.

e.    The emission reduction potential is on par with US domestic action on clean power and vehicle emission standards.