TRANSCRIPT
Less than two hours by ferry from the grit and gridlock of megacity Jakarta, Pari Island seems almost too good to be true.
The Indonesian capital's 10 million people are swapped for just 1,500. Children spend all day playing barefoot on sandy white beaches, while pristine turquoise seas lap around them.
Then you notice the swing sets and picnic tables peaking out of the water.
Arif Pujianto lives about 50 metres from the water - unless there's a high tide, he says.
“During high tides or tidal floods, it comes right into the house, up to about here. You can still see the marks. When the tidal flood hit, it got in here, left all this damage, made things rot and fall apart.”
Locals say life on this island was steady for generations, but over the past decade it has undergone a dramatic transformation.
All around the shore, structures that used to sit on land are now permanently submerged.
Environmentalists monitoring Pari Island say 11 per cent has already been swallowed by the sea, with some projecting the entire island will be underwater by 2050.
If that happens, locals like Pujianto say they will have nowhere to go.
“Well, this is my island, the place I’ve lived since I was a child. It’s predicted that by 2030 or 2040, more small islands will sink or disappear. So it’s not impossible that inhabited islands, too, could sink or become too damaged to live on. If that ever happens — I really hope it doesn’t. That’s why I filed this lawsuit.”
It is difficult to name a place that has contributed less to human-induced climate change than Pari Island.
There is not a single car on the island; the community grows and catches much of its food; they've even planted thousands of carbon-capturing mangroves along the coastline in a bid to protect it from further erosion.
Yet it's one of the places in Indonesia where the effects of climate change are being felt most acutely.
Rising tides have damaged homes, warming waters have ruined once-lucrative seaweed farms, and rapidly changing weather patterns have made fishing largely unprofitable.
The community is now demanding damages, having launched a landmark legal case against Swiss cement giant Holcim over its historic carbon emissions.
Seaweed farmer Ibu Asmania is one of the four plaintiffs.
“It's not like we just suddenly decided to sue Holcim. We studied this for a long time before choosing Holcim, because their emissions are among the highest in the world. The warming we're feeling now is caused by the massive emissions they've been producing since the 1950s.”
The cement industry accounts for around 8 per cent of global carbon emissions annually, mostly due to the extreme heat needed to produce clinker, which is one of the main ingredients in cement.
Holcim is the industry's biggest player, worth more than $75 billion.
Asmania and the other plaintiffs are seeking about $6,800 each, arguing Holcim is responsible for 0.42 per cent of all global emissions since 1950 and should therefore pay for the same proportion of the damage caused to Pari Island.
“What we're demanding first is for Holcim to cut its emissions, and secondly, to repair the environmental damage on Pari Island, through restoration, disaster mitigation, mangrove replanting and building wave barriers. It would mean our sea could recover, the fish could come back, and the whole ecosystem could heal again.”
Asmania and her husband, Sartono, have operated a small seaweed farm just off the coast of Pari Island for 20 years.
Almost every family on the island used to farm seaweed, but today she says only five are still trying.
Rising sea temperatures are bleaching their crops, making them largely unharvestable.
The community's other main source of income — fishing — has not spared the impacts of climate change either.
Bang Bobby is another plaintiff in the Holcim case. He remembers first going out to sea with his parents in his fifth year of primary school. Now 53 years old, he says he has been fishing the waters off Pari Island ever since.
“We could still predict the seasons back then, including the wind directions month to month. Back in the day, during the easterly winds around August, we'd catch tuna mackerel and scads. Then, as the seasons shifted to westerlies around March or April, we'd catch Spanish mackerel, baby tuna, and lots of others. Now, even though we’re experienced, we can’t predict nature anymore — every forecast is completely off.”
Bobby says fish populations have declined across the island, which means local fishers need to travel much further out to sea to find their daily catch.
During the region's eight-month-long wet season, when storms are sudden and intense, they often need to turn back before catching anything.
The difference in Bobby's income is dramatic; he used to turn a profit of around $500-$600 per month, but now, he says he is lucky to make $150.
“This is something we have to do. Even though Pari Island is far from Holcim's factories, the emissions they produce have caused the climate change that's reached us here. Imagine a big basin filled with water. If you drop even a small stone into it, it still creates ripples and waves that reach everywhere. It's the same with emissions. You can't see them with your eyes, but their impact is real and we can feel it.”
No community has ever successfully sued a corporation on another continent over its carbon emissions.
A Peruvian farmer spent the better part of a decade attempting to launch a lawsuit against German energy giant RWE, arguing its carbon emissions contributed to glacial flooding in his hometown, but the court rejected his case in May.
Mas Bagus from the Indonesian Forum for the Environment, which is assisting the Pari Island community with its legal case, say that if it is successful, it could set an important precedent for other communities seeking climate justice.
“We know that emissions, and therefore the climate crisis, cannot be contained within administrative borders. They contribute to impacts in regions far beyond where they are produced. Of course, other corporations should also be held accountable. We invite others to do the same. Today it's Holcim, tomorrow it could be other companies that must also take responsibility.”
The Pari Island plaintiffs travelled to Switzerland in September to make their case and are now awaiting the court's decision on whether to consider their complaint.
In a statement to SBS News, a Holcim spokesperson said: "In our opinion, the question of who is allowed to emit how much CO2 is a matter for the legislature and not a question for a civil court... We await the court's decision, yet regardless of the outcome, Holcim is fully committed to reaching net zero by 2050."
By then, the people of Pari Island fear it will be too late.
Edi Mulyono is the fourth and final plaintiff in the case against Holcim.
He says he is doing this for his children.
“I don't know how long I'll live; maybe I'll die tomorrow, but I've got three kids; the eldest is in high school, the youngest is still in kindergarten. What I fear most is what will happen when my children grow up and have their own kids. Where will they live if this island keeps eroding and disappearing because of coastal abrasion and tidal floods? That's what's always on my mind. That's why I'm still doing everything I can to protect this island from sinking.”
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Feature The tiny island taking one of the world's most valuable companies to court
