Indonesia has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 29 per cent by 2030 through stepping up protection of forests and boosting the renewable energy sector. Indonesia, one of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters, said it would reduce deforestation, restore degraded forests, and lift the share of renewable energy to almost a quarter of the national energy mix in a decade.

The 29 per cent reduction by 2030 is relative to a business-as-usual scenario without climate action, according to the pledge filed on Thursday, the latest to be submitted ahead of UN talks on a climate rescue pact in December in Paris. With international assistance, such as financing, the pledge raises the target to a 41-per cent cut by 2030. Previously in 2009, Indonesia had vowed to cut emissions by 26 per cent by 2020.

The pledge was released as Indonesian slash-and-burn agricultural fires send smog floating over Southeast Asia, with neighbouring Singapore on Friday closing all schools as air quality deteriorated to hazardous levels. The illegal fires, mostly set to clear land for plantations, are an annual occurrence and Jakarta has come under pressure to do more to stop them.

Indonesia is the world’s fifth-biggest greenhouse gas emitter if forest loss is taken into account.