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SEAFOAM - The Ocean as a Vital Climate Solution
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SEAFOAM - The Ocean as a Vital Climate Solution

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Project Partner: Climateworks Centre

Geographies: Indonesia

 

What is the core idea of the pilot?

 

The Southeast Asia Framework for Ocean Action in Mitigation (SEAFOAM) aims to pioneer the inclusion of the ocean in Indonesia's climate mitigation plans, setting a benchmark for other countries to follow. The approach looks at creating a joint vision through ecosystem building and facilitating collaboration and coordination around providing knowledge of how the ocean can contribute to emissions reduction.

 

Phase 1, funded by Quantedge (PAA Member), assessed the decarbonisation potential of Indonesia’s marine and coastal resources, and demonstrated its capacity to become a regional leader in ocean-climate action through the right policy support and investments, ecosystem protections and energy efficiency measures. 

 

In Phase 2, SEAFOAM aims to amplify this success by continuing to support the government in realising the ocean’s role as a climate solution. 

 

Why is this innovative?

 

We combine systems-level thinking with approaches that bridge other works with the right decision makers:

 

- SEAFOAM is the first project in the region that directly brings ocean mitigation into the national climate strategy. The project’s success offers scalability to other countries in Southeast Asia and/or other island nations

 

- The project combines research and public engagement with the ‘inside track’ approach, bringing the information to the right people within the government and policy making process

 

- The project offers tailored capacity building for government and NGOs and training on the linkages between the ocean and the climate


What will success look like?

 

The Indonesian government has included blue carbon as a separate category of targets and mitigation strategies within its next Nationally Determined Contribution due in 2025.

 

By 2026:

 

- Investment is being directed into blue ecosystems through a new financial system architecture.

 

- Indonesia has integrated relevant policies across key government departments, creating systemic support to implement the ocean targets and strategies in the 2025 NDC.

 

- There is a cohort of stakeholders upskilled, engaged and enabled to lead the implementation of the policy changes.

 

How will success be achieved?

 

The three-year SEAFOAM implementation plan focuses on three main interventions:

 

1. Establish forums for dialogue & capacity building to address:

- Layer 1: Convening key decision-makers at the national (Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries), provincial, local government, and community levels.

- Layer 2: Offering capacity building and training on the ocean-climate nexus.

 

2. Knowledge generation and pilot projects collation to address:

- Layer 3: Curating and creating knowledge assets and supporting pilot project development.

 

3. Creating a specific policy intervention project to address:

- Layer 4: Advising on specific policy interventions related to decarbonisation and systems change 

 

Who is leading the project?

 

Climateworks Centre has 15 years of experience in Australia and five years in Indonesia working to create the enabling environment to shift to low-emissions solutions.


In Indonesia, it made demonstrable progress in raising ambition by providing recommendations to the Indonesian government:

 

- Co-led sessions for G20 Energy Transition Working Group leading to recommendations endorsed by Indonesia’s Vice-President

 

- Led development and implementation of ESG framework for Financial and Development Supervisory Board, BPKP

 

Climateworks’ deep knowledge of international ocean-climate dialogues and trends is tightly interwoven with its contextual understanding of how the Indonesian government works across its five levels of government. In Phase 1, it has demonstrated ‘why’ these inclusions are critical, and ‘what’ are the sectors that can contribute to Indonesia’s net zero goal. Findings have been presented to both the Indonesian government and an international audience to build the case for why ocean-climate action is urgent and demonstrate the ‘how’ by establishing what good looks like. 

Further reading

International Blue Carbon Institute

Building capacity and expertise to design and implement high-quality blue carbon projects

Scaling Ocean Conservation through Protection and Production

Bringing together the “twin pillars” of ocean conservation — protection and production

Marine Biodiversity Survey of Southeast Asia

Establishing a biodiversity baseline for marine conservation and restoration

Saving Indonesia’s Rhinos

Leveraging technology to protect and conserve the last wild populations of rhinos

Decarbonising Rice

Reducing methane emissions and improving farmer livelihoods

Clean Cooling Collaborative (CCC)

Transforming the cooling sector by increasing access to clean cooling solutions

The Mangroves 40 Initiative – M40

Restoring mangrove ecosystems through innovative financing solutions

SCeNe Coalition – Building High Impact Nature-Based Solutions

Accelerating high-quality and investible nature-based climate solutions

Jatropha - A Sustainable Crop for Biofuels

Enabling sustainable growth of high-value biofuel crops to improve livelihoods

Accelerating Resilient and Circular Cities

Implementing circularity projects on food, plastics, and the built environment