VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

For illustration: A refinery in Port Kembla near Sydney, Australia. (File photo: AFP/Torsten Blackwood) - 

Australia's federal government and the state of South Australia have signed a A$1.1 billion (US$851 million) deal to finance measures aimed at making energy more affordable and helping to curb carbon emissions.

Australia said in December it could beat its target for cutting carbon emissions under the Paris climate agreement by 2030 without counting credits from overachieving on its targets in previous climate pacts, marking a shift in policy for one of the world's biggest emitters per capita.

Under the agreement, South Australia will provide A$422 million and the federal government will spend A$660 million, A$400 million of which will be spent on "priority areas" such as carbon storage, electric vehicles, hydrogen and other projects aiming at reducing emissions.

"Families and businesses need affordable, reliable power. That is what reduces prices and creates jobs," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said during a televised briefing while announcing the agreement.

"Australians also want to ensure we are doing everything we responsibly can to combat climate change."Premier of South Australia Steven Marshall said the deal will also help to deliver the infrastructure needed for electric cars and to generate new revenue for farmers from carbon reductions.

"This agreement is going to lower power bills for South Australians and create jobs in the fast-growing renewables industry," Marshall said.But the agreement was criticised by Mark Butler, who worked as minister for climate change under a previous Labor government.

"What we get is, bit by bit, little bits of announcements in particular states instead of a comprehensive national policy that will underpin investor certainty to transition Australia's energy future," said Butler, currently the shadow minister of health//CNA

A number of cars and motorcycles queued for gas emission  test at the Jakarta Environmental Office on Tuesday (January 26, 2021). ANTARA PHOTO/Fakhri Hermansyah/aww - 

Governor of Jakarta Anies Baswedan has put forth a proposal to reduce carbon emissions as concrete action of C40 major cities to address climate change.

Addressing the dialog between C40 mayors and UN Secretary General on advancing carbon neutrality and resilient recovery for cities and nations held virtually on Friday night, Anies came up with two proposals to assist the UN in implementing a carbon emission reduction program and mitigating the impact of climate change.

"First, the UN can drive countries to recognize the achievement of climate action made at a city level and it (the achievement) must be reckoned as part of Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to climate action," he said in a written statement released on Saturday.

Anies believed the UN could lend a hand to encourage the horizontal and vertical integration of actions and policies.Ahead of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) to be held in Glasgow on November 1-12, he appealed to the UN to support countries in developing comprehensive architecture and funding structure to elaborate the benefits achieved by the central government at global forum to be executed at local level.

He said city governments played a role in ensuring that the environment inhabited by their residents is decent and resilient.

"City governments are tasked with providing decent residences for city dwellers by, among others, mitigating the impact of climate change and reducing carbon emissions produced by their cities," he said.

Jakarta has taken various climate actions and has set itself the target of achieving zero emission by 2050, he said."Jakarta is committed to becoming a climate resilience city. Jakarta has transformed from car-based development to (mass rapid) transit-based development," he said.

UN Secretary General Antonio Gutteres agreed to the proposal and pledged to follow it up//ANT

A pick-up truck loads wild tiger cage traps. (ANTARA/ Dok Resor KSDA Agam) - 

The Agam Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) has installed two wild tiger cage traps in areas where several Sumatran tigers recently snatched two buffaloes in Tigo Balai Village, Matur Sub-district, Agam District, West Sumatra Province.

The first cage trap with a length of two meters and width of 90 centimeters was installed in an area where a buffalo of Rajo Bentan,50, a resident of Jorong Cubadak Lilin Hamlet, was snatched on April 16, Head of BKSDA-Agam Office Ade Putra said.

The second one was installed in the area where a buffalo of Datuak Bagindo,50, a resident of Jorong Sari Bulan Hamlet of Tigo Balai Village, was attacked by the tigers on April 15, he said in a statement that ANTARA quoted here Sunday.

"Each of the tiger cage trap is filled with a goat as a bait. And, the wildlife rangers observe the two traps every morning for a week. They also conduct a routine patrol at night," he said.

If the wild tigers could be caught, they agency's officers would firstly observe the captive tigers' health condition before releasing them into their natural habitat, Putra said.One of the two snatched buffaloes was devoured while the other one got wounded, he said, adding that the wild tigers had repeatedly attacked local villagers' buffaloes over the past few months.

On April 12, Eka, 35, a resident of Kota Rantang Village in Palupuah Sub-district, Agam District, also reported that three wild Sumatran tigers had repeatedly trespassed into the village's farmland, and attacked the cattle.

"The wild tigers comprise one adult and two young ones. They caught hold of two goats while roaring around the farmland," Eka said.

The goats, owned by a villager identified as Rasik, 60, were snatched and devoured by the tigers while grazing in a farmland, about a kilometer away from the village, Eka said.

The Sumatran tigers (Pantera Tigris Sumatrae) that have been spotted in the village's farmland over these past two months also attacked a dog of a villager, according to Eka.The recurrent tiger sightings around the village's farmland and woods had instilled a sense of fear among the villagers and prevented them from venturing into their agricultural areas, Eka noted.

ANTARA noted that in Indonesia, Sumatran tigers (Pantera Tigris Sumatrae) were the only surviving tiger species, as the country had already lost two sub-species of tigers to extinction: the Bali tiger that became extinct in 1937 and the Javan tiger in the 1970s.

Sumatran tigers, the smallest of all tiger species, are currently critically endangered and only found on Sumatra Island, Indonesia's second-largest island.

The tigers are on the brink of extinction owing to deforestation, poaching, and conflicts between wild animals and local people owing to their dwindling habitats.The exact figure of Sumatran tigers left in the wild is ambiguous, though the latest estimates range, from under 300 to possibly 500 at 27 locations, including in the Kerinci Seblat National Park, Tesso Nilo Park, and Gunung Leuser National Park//ANT

Australia effectively sealed itself off from the rest of the world at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic AFP/David GRAY - 

Australia is in no hurry to reopen its international borders and risk the country's nearly coronavirus-free lifestyle, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday (Apr 18).

Australia closed its borders to all non-citizens and non-residents in March 2020 and has permitted only limited international arrivals in recent months, mainly Australians returning from abroad. 

Australia has recorded around 29,500 COVID-19 cases and 910 deaths. 

"Australia is in no hurry to open those borders, I assure you," Morrison said in a televised briefing. 

"I will not be putting at risk the way we are living in this country, which is so different to the rest of the world today." 

For months now, except for some short snap lockdowns, Australians have been able to dine out, gather nearly freely and stop wearing face masks in most places.

They exchanged their international forays for local trips, with government figures showing big annual increases in intra-state travel in the first months of 2021.

From Monday, Australians and neighbouring New Zealanders will be able to travel between both countries without the need to apply for an exemption or spend time in mandatory quarantine.

New Zealand has had only 2,239 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 26 related deaths.

Morrison flagged on Sunday that vaccinated Australians could be able travel overseas "for essential purposes" and return via home quarantine in the second half of the year, but that possibility is only in "planning stages"//CNA