Three Indonesian vice-presidential candidates taking part in the V-P election debate on Dec. 22. (Photo: General Elections Commission of Indonesia)
The second debate of Indonesia Presidential election conducted last Friday, with the vice-presidential candidate from the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerakan Indonesia Raya, Gerindra), Gibran Rakabuming Raka, posing a question to Mahfud MD, the vide-president candidate from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan, PDIP), regarding the issue of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). This unexpected topic of question has become widely discussed.
At that time, Gibran stated, “Professor Mahfud, considering your expertise in law, I would like to ask you, what are the regulations of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)?”
Mahfud responded, “Regulatory experts don’t need to go into specifics regulations one by one, unless there’s already a planned regulation. Then, how do we regulate? First of all, we need to create an academic document. This academic document if … following a simple framework, would be based on the legal study of ROCCIPI. What if there are already existing regulations, what if there are no regulations yet. And then, how’s the opportunity, institutional capacity, public communication. Then … how’s the ideology. These are the ROCCIPI and the procedures. If I were asked about carbon or any other regulations, we would follow this process. However, in my opinion , the most important aspect of anything we do is the need for financial regulatory system.”
