The regulation of the emerging REDD+ carbon market in Indonesia is in limbo amid an internal government disagreement, while controversial plans to loosen the country’s definition of a forest in favour of palm oil have been dropped.

REDD+ is the acronym given to a global initiative that would see developed countries pay developing nations to preserve and restore their forests, the loss of which is a significant contributor to global carbon emissions said to be driving global warming.

Indonesia was the first country to lay down a regulatory framework for REDD projects, setting rules last year for the all-important carbon-credit revenue sharing arrangements between various tiers of government, local forest peoples and project developers.

At Copenhagen last December, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, pledged a 40 percent cut in carbon dioxide intensity by 2020. By moving forward on coal energy, Malaysia would make meeting this goal even more difficult, since coal is the most carbon intensive of the fossil fuels.

Kammen says that the choice between coal and renewable energy doesn't have to be an either-or choice: either cheap or expensive, either job creation or job loss.