Coastal adaptation laws and the social justice of policies to address sea level rise: An Indonesian insight

Abstract

Climate change and sea level rise (SLR) poses serious risks to coastal communities around the world requiring nations to apply adaptation laws and policies. Climate change will exacerbate the existing threats to vulnerable communities, such as the poor, and threaten the food security of populations in coastal areas through the effects of flooding due to coastal inundation. Indonesia is an Archipelagic State of over 17,000 islands and is vulnerable to climate change impacts in its coastal areas and especially in its highly populated low lying delta areas, such as Jakarta and Semarang, where vulnerability to sea level rise is evident. The adequacy of the legal adaptation framework in Indonesia to respond to this climate vulnerability is assessed and it is found to have limited consideration of the community burden arising from these climate and SLR uncertainties. A more inclusive social justice approach could assist government to respond to the impacts from these issues and to their implications for vulnerable groups. The nation can improve adaptive legal measures to address climate change impacts and increase the involvement of local people in climate change adaptation decision making. Funding is required to assist policy makers to further incorporate adaptation into decision making, and this could improve social justice outcomes for vulnerable Indonesian coastal communities.