6 March 2008
BALI PREPARES ACTION PLAN TO ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE
Posted by webmaster under: News .
The Jakarta Post, 22 Feb 2008
Irawaty Wardany, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar
Showing its commitment to recommendations from the recent UN
Conference on Climate Change, Bali is preparing an action plan for
climate change adaptation and mitigation.
“The Bali Action Plan recommended by the UN meeting will need a long
time to be set up, so the Bali administration should prepare steps
for this island first,” Bali Collaboration for Climate Change
spokesperson Hira Jhamtani said in a discussion here Tuesday.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),
held in Bali last December, concluded with consensus for the so-
called Bali Action Plan.
However, Hira said, the plan was only in the form of recommendations
and needed much further discussion in follow-up meetings.
Therefore, he said, the Bali administration needed to identify which
regions on the island were at higher risk of impacts from climate
change, to be the first targets for the action plan.
“The Bali administration also needs to stop issuing licenses for
development projects along the coast and lake areas and temporarily
stop issuing licenses to cut down trees in forests,” Hira said.
The collaboration, involving non-governmental organizations,
religious leaders, students and intellectuals from universities, also
aims at promoting Nyepi (Balinese Hindu day of silence) values
internationally as a fair and cheap way to reduce climate change.
The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi)’s Bali chapter head
Ni Nyoman Sri Widhiyanti said the collaboration had first announced
the silence day idea publicly at the UNFCCC meeting.
Nyepi is practiced only in Bali, collaboration member Panji Tisna
said.
“You can not find a similar activity any where else in the world,” he
said.
Nyepi is a time for Hindu Balinese to practice self introspection.
Throughout this day, people are not permitted to do any kind of
activities except for those related to spiritual purification.
While the concept for world silence day was derived from Nyepi, the
day was not expected to be practiced in exactly the same way as the
Balinese ritual, Tisna said.
“This day should be introduced gradually — we are suggesting people
do not use electronic equipment for four hours on March 21 this
year,” he said.
Asked whether world silence day would violate human rights, because
Nyepi was essentially a Hindu ritual, Tisna said people should forget
that association.
“The main point of international silence day is to tackle the
greenhouse effect,” he said.
The day was not intended to be a religious ritual like Nyepi, but
used silence and introspection to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by
stopping people from traveling and various other activities.
“We should avoid the idea that we are hoping to convert everyone in
the world to Hindu through the event,” he said.
“Instead, we should promote silence day not only as a religious
ritual but also as our karma to preserve nature,” he said.
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March 9th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Dear All,
We learn from the Nyepi Day on March 7,2008 that one day silent is not hard. Who want to join. It is very easy, but useful.
Regards
KG Dharma Putra
March 10th, 2008 at 10:52 am
This would work better if you held it on a Sunday, when fewer people are working. I’d like to participate in this, but as I’ll be working during those hours on that day, we can’t shut the business down for 4 hours - and you’ll find others will be in the same position. If it were Sunday, I’d definitely participate. In any event, I turn everything off at the mains except the fridge when I go to work and I do that every day. But best of luck with your efforts; your hearts are the in right place!
March 10th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
We have a law practice, and we are going to observe this day of March 21, Friday with silence, we will be turning off the electric to the office and home for four hours. Hopefully we plan on doing this one day a month. for the whole year. Maybe if nothing else we will see a smaller Electric bill!
March 13th, 2008 at 3:20 am
100 % DEAL !!
March 13th, 2008 at 3:22 am
100 % DEAL.
June 6th, 2008 at 2:09 am
good topic to conference, but every country have to obey with the decisions