Barring an unforeseeable turnaround, the House of Representatives will ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change on Wednesday, marking the start of Indonesia’s bid to fulfill its ambitious target of a 29-percent reduction in carbon emissions against a business-as-usual scenario by 2030.

If the unanimous approval of House Commission VII overseeing energy and environment of the draft ratification on Monday mirrors the views of the entire legislative branch of power, hopes abound that the realization of the new global climate pact will go unhindered in the country.

Politicians’ full support for the Paris accord on the one hand could demonstrate their awareness about the clear and present danger to the environment that Indonesia and the global community have to deal with together.

On the other hand, the ratification requires complete understanding on the part of policymakers of what achieving these climate targets entails. Hopefully the politicians are aware that the devil of the Paris Agreement is in the detail.

As a party to the agreement, Indonesia, like other countries, will have to revisit its current pledges stipulated in its nationally determined contributions (NDCs) by 2020 and strengthen its 2030 targets. It is in the NDCs, or climate action, that the challenges lie.

First and foremost, both the government and the House commission have approved Indonesia’s NDCs, in which the energy sector will contribute 16.87 percent, forestry 7.22 percent, agriculture 1.21 percent, industries 0.71 percent and waste 2.99 percent to carbon emissions reduction.

With the administration of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo pushing for heavily coal-based 35-gigawatt power plant development to boost the national electrification rate, the government will have to find ways to compensate this fast-track policy by immediately shifting to more renewable energies in the country’s outlying areas. Indonesia should also optimize its energy mix modeling by increasing the gas supply to replace other fuels.

 In the forestry sector, the other backbone of Indonesia’s climate change mitigation efforts, the formation of the Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG) is a crucial step to implement peatland restoration and sustainable land-use management highlighted in the country’s NDCs. The next moves will be extending a moratorium on permits to convert primary and secondary forests and peatland, which have led to forest fires.

Indonesia and other parties to the Paris Agreement have realized that it is in their own interests to cut their carbon pollution. Far from destroying the economy, domestic climate action produces real benefits for citizens, including new jobs, reduced poverty and lower mortality rates. With natural disasters increasing in frequency and intensity, not addressing climate change will itself be a long-lasting disaster.

The agreement will come into force just before the upcoming UN conference on climate change in Marrakech, Morocco, early next month. To ensure the whole nation heeds and takes advantage of it, President Jokowi needs to ensure that ministries and regional administrations uphold and practice good climate governance.