WFD’s environmental democracy work in Indonesia began in 2020, when WFD led successful focus groups on environmental issues involving MPs from relevant committees through a partnership with the Indonesian Parliament’s Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Committee (BKSAP DPR RI). The discussions garnered much-needed attention on environmental sustainability with an emphasis on how the parliament is an important yet underutilised actor in helping Indonesia achieve its targets of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) by 2030 and the net-zero goal by 2060 or sooner. WFD’s work in this policy area emphasises the need to enhance access to information, public participation, and accountability in environmental programming as well as the need to include marginalised groups—particularly indigenous peoples—in the process.

In 2021, WFD began implementing a programme that seeks to enhance the parliament’s role in climate action agenda. WFD facilitated the development of regulatory impact assessment reports key legislative products which included the Renewable Energy Bill, Oil and Gas Amendment Bill, and Biodiversity Conservation Bill. WFD also supported a series of parliamentary post-legislative scrutiny (PLS) exercises focused on the Jobs Creation Omnibus Law, Waste Management Law, the Disaster Management Law, and the Forest Loss Prevention Law.

The programme led to the inclusion of a Climate Change Bill which seeks to strengthen climate governance and mobilise adequate resources for climate change adaptation and mitigation for the first time into the national legislative agenda. Currently, WFD continues to work with cross-committee and cross-party stakeholders to refine the bill in close consultation with civil society through a multi-stakeholder co-creation process. Following an intensive series of workshops, WFD enabled the parliament to provide robust green budget analysis in its fiscal note on the government’s 2023 and 2024 budget plans.

WFD’s work in Indonesia has also been particularly successful in promoting climate action as a strategic focus in multiple regional and international forums. WFD brought a group of parliamentarians from across the world to discuss their role in climate action at the 144th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly and urged for just transitions at the 8th G20 Parliamentary Speaker’s Forum in 2022. Similar agendas were also highlighted as part of the programme with a focus on regional cooperation for climate action at the 15th Bali Democracy Forum as well on green corruption and better public debt management in the extractive sector during the 2023 Southeast Asian Parliamentarians against Corruption (SEAPAC) regional conference.