Nusantara: Indonesia’s parliament on 18 January 2022 passed a law approving the relocation of its capital from slowly sinking Jakarta.

Key Highlights:

• The Indonesian capital will be relocated to a site 2,000 kilometres away on jungle-clad Borneo Island.
• The capital will be named “Nusantara”.
• Nusantara", which means "archipelago", was chosen from a list of 80 names because it was widely recognizable by Indonesians and easy to memorize.
• The new capital will cover about 56,180 hectares (216 square miles) in East Kalimantan province on the Indonesian part of Borneo, which the country shares with Malaysia and Brunei.
• The House of Representatives vote provides the legal framework for the move.
• The move was first tipped by President Joko Widodo in April 2019, citing rising sea levels and severe congestion on densely populated Java Island.
• The move to the forested province of East Kalimantan in Borneo has, however, triggered its own concerns about the environmental impact there.
• Home to more than 30 million people in its greater metro area, Jakarta has long been plagued by serious infrastructure problems and flooding exacerbated by climate change, with experts predicting up to a third of the city could be underwater by 2050.

About Jakarta:

• Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia lies on the northwest coast of Java.
• The largest islands in Indonesia are Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), Sulawesi, and the Indonesian part of New Guinea (known as Papua or Irian Jaya).
• Jakarta has been Indonesia’s capital since the country became independent in 1949.

Other countries that relocated their capitals:

• Malaysia moved its government to Putrajaya from Kuala Lumpur in 2003.
• Myanmar moved its capital to Naypyidaw from Rangoon in 2006.
• In 1960, Brazil changed from Rio De Janeiro to Brasilia. Brasilia is more centrally located
• In 1991, Nigeria changed its capital from Lagos to Abuja.
• Kazakhstan changed its capital from Alamty to Nur – sultan.

About Indonesia:

• Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans.
• It consists of over seventeen thousand islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea.
• The currency used here is Indonesian Rupiah.
• The current President of Indonesia is Joko Widodo.

About SLR:

• Sea Level Rise is an increase in the level of the world’s oceans due to the effects of climate change, especially global warming.
• It is induced by three primary factors:
• Thermal Expansion
• Melting Glaciers and Loss of Greenland
• Antarctica’s ice sheets.
• Sea level is primarily measured using tide stations and satellite laser altimeters.
• Global sea level has been rising over the past century, and the rate has accelerated in recent decades.