BMKG Refutes News of Jakarta having the Worst Air Quality
19 August 2018 15:06 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) issued a statement responding to two foreign news agencies accusing Jakarta of having a declining air quality during the 2018 Asian Games.
BMKG Head Dwikorita Karnawati said that the accusations are blatantly untrue and stated that Indonesia has been accused numerous times to be a country with the world’s most emissive greenhouse gas producer.
“However, the assessment and research by reputable agencies and the real GRK data measured in the field have denied those accusations,” said Dwikorita in an official written statement on Saturday, August 19.
On August 17, 2018, Al Jazeera issued an article entitled; “Air pollution welcomes athletes in Jakarta for Asian Games“, which stated that Jakarta’s air pollution have spiked during the past several years. “Referring to the WHO standard, there are some people saying that Jakarta’s air pollution has gotten worse compared to Beijing, China,” said Dwikora.
BBC Indonesia had also reported that Jakarta had become the most polluted city in the world during the 2018 Asian Games. Previously in 2004, Reuters issued an article accusing Indonesia of being the third largest emitter caused by deforestation, peatland degradation, and wildfires.
However in 2017, a research by Boden and Associates entitled National CO2 Emissions from Fossil-Fuel Burning, Cement Manufacture, and Gas Flaring issued by the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy had not included Indonesia in the top six world emitters.
Corresponding to the scientific paper, the 2018 Climate Change Performance Index report also excluded Indonesia from the top 10 emitters but ranked 14th.
“Jakarta or Indonesia is not ranked as one of the countries that the WHO announced from the air pollution and health impacts report,” said BMKG Head Dwikora.
IMAM RIYADI