“Ecology is the study of home, Economics is the management of home, and of course our home is the nature.”

-Liestar, 2012

Indonesia is still on race to pursue a so-called sustainable development, with having “good economic growth” status. We all are encouraged to pursue this condition as a purpose to live since very young by having good educational attainment, great position in company or establishing own business. However, there are questions that are bothering me,

“Can the economy really go on growing forever and more importantly, What is the economic growth for?”

Argument 1- Global economic growth is necessary to eradicate poverty

Argument 2- People want more, and expect more

In reality, the argument 2 is more rational because as we can see the economic inequality precisely is still occuring more and bigger till today. Economic “wealth” more conventionally represented by money, is actually dependent on environment. Environment plays a key role in our economy, as a direct input into production and through many services it provides. Environmenttal resources such as minerals and fossil fuels directly facilitate the production of goods and services. The environment provides other services that enable economic activity, such as sequestering carbon, filtering air and water pollution, protecting against flood risk, and soil formation. It is also vital for our wellbeing, providing us with recreational opportunities, improving our health and much more (Everett et all, 2010). In conclusion, if the environment is constantly undermined as today then the economy will fail at last.

Indonesia should understand economy as meeting needs rather than promoting growth or satisfying consumer preferences as the definition of sustainable development and also to enhancing the environment’s ability in supporting human’s life by applying strict regulation in exploiting nature, high incentives to those who conserve the nature, environmentally technology innovation enhancement, and also high punishment for those who irresponsibly damage environment. This vision needs government, society and business sector work hand in hand. The business sector plays key role here as driving force to enable the transition to a green economy, by seeing this as a great opportunity and capitalising the transition therefore people will not see the economy activity and environment conservation in paradoxical relation anymore. The business sector also plays role in collaborating with government to launch policies to support this transition.

A clean, sustainable and affordable energy resouces for Indonesia is still on debate. The surveyor, scientist, engineer, local and national government, accountant and business sector should work hand in hand. The surveyor needs to map the society and geographical condition of a region, searching potential energy resources to develop due to the diverse regions in Indonesia that have different potential energy resources. The scientist and engineer work together to develop this potential energy resources into well-established technology. The local and national government plays role in licensing, cooperation and funding issues. The accountant plays key role to marketize and measure every step required to establish this technology and to determine if this technology is competitive with existing one. At last, business sector plays role to realize the technology as a clean, sustainable and affordable energy resouces for people by capitilizing it into investment.

Reference

Everett T., Ishwaran M., Ansaloni G.P., and Rubin A., 2010, Economic Growth and The environment, Defra Evidence and Analysis Series, United Kingdom