The proposed revision would give the council a permanent secretariat to manage a budget and support the daily tasks of the council and its working groups, deputy senior minister at the Coordinating Public Welfare Minister’s Office Indroyono Soesilo, said.

“We want to make the DNPI’s secretariat more effective in order to secure and manage a budget,” he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

The DNPI was set up in 2008 under a presidential regulation with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as chairman and the coordinating minister as deputy.

Former environment minister Rachmat Witoelar was initially appointed DNPI’s executive director, and 17 Cabinet ministers were made council members.

DNPI’s general secretariat is currently chaired by Agus Purnomo, former special assistant to Rachmat at the Environment Ministry.

Indroyono declined to divulge possible changes to the DNPI structure after the revision.

DNPI has eight working groups for mitigation, adaptation, finance, post 2023 planning, technology transfer, scientific research, LULUCF (land use, land use change and forestry) and ocean issues.

The DNPI’s budget was previously integrated with the Environment Ministry, which was then the lead institution on climate change issues.

Under the new proposal, the DNPI would be placed under the Coordinating Public Welfare Minister’s Office.

“The DNPI will not be an executive agency. It will still focus on policy coordination on climate change issues such as how to meet the government’s target to slash [emissions] 26 percent,” Indroyono said, adding that executing emission reductions would be the responsibility of the related institutions.

Strengthening the DNPI was a priority for the government as it prepares a number of new institutions for climate change issues.

Yudhoyono is expected to establish a new council on the UN’s REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) proposals and an independent agency on the MRV (measurable, reportable and verifiable) program this year as part of the US$1 billion climate deal with Norway.

Indonesia and Norway would also set up a new financing agency to manage the grant which would be disbursed based on total emission reductions by Indonesia.

Currently, the government has set up the Indonesian Climate Change Trust Fund as a pool for the anticipated influx of foreign money for climate change projects.

Norway has requested that an independent institution monitor and manage the money they have pledged.

The government should ensure that the DNPI will take concrete policies to cut emissions locally, Civil Society Forum on climate change coordinator Giorgio Indarto said.

“What we see so far is that the DNPI plays more of a role in international negotiations, but forgets to coordinate emission cuts at the local level,” he told the Post.