The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in 2021 confirms that the risks will increase if the global average surface temperature rises by 2 degrees Celsius, and in particular developing countries like Indonesia will be more vulnerable to the impact of climate change.

According to the IPCC’s fifth assessment report (2014) and Indonesian Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry (2020), climate change and unpredictable weather have resulted in sea level rises that are reducing marine fish catches by 40–60 percent, as well as worsening socioeconomic conditions in around 10,000 coastal villages in Indonesia. In tackling climate change and avoiding tipping points of global climatic disasters, controlling carbon emissions from the global energy system, which is currently heavily reliant on fossil fuels, is critical.

In recent years, energy transition has become an intensive topic of discussion in Indonesia. According to the Indonesian Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in 2021, the country aims to cut emissions by 29 percent by 2030 if it relies solely on its own resources to finance decarbonization, or 41 percent with international support.

However, as the world’s largest island country, Indonesia consists of 34 provinces and multilayered governments. The governance system is decentralized and requires the participation of the regional governments in the clean-energy transition processes. Therefore, it is particularly important to support the efforts not only by central government but also regional governments.

Several provinces have made great efforts to transition to renewable energy. One example is the province of Bali, which is proposing the development and use of clean energy beginning in 2020. In 2019, the Bali administration issued two regulations to realize clean-energy supply by 2022: the Bali Clean Energy and the Use of Battery-Based Electric Motorized Vehicles bylaws. As a result, state oil and gas company PT Pertamina is interested in strategic cooperation with the Bali administration to increase the clean-energy mix in the province by developing an electric vehicle ecosystem in tourist areas, constructing solar power plants, and waste power plants.

In addition, the Central Java administration has also committed to accelerating the transition by encouraging all sectors in the province to develop solar rooftops as they declared “Central Java Solar Province” in 2019. The governor also issued a circular letter in 2019 promoting the construction of solar rooftops on all regional institutions and several private companies in Central Java. As a result, the largest solar rooftops in Central Java, of 2,919 kilowatts peak, were installed in 2020 in Klaten regency.

In eastern Indonesia, the governor of East Nusa Tenggara also fully supports the deployment of renewables in the region as it possesses abundant potential sources of renewable energy. Therefore, several projects on renewable energy have been developed with the help of the public and private sectors such as Sumba Iconic Island and Flores Geothermal Island.

The examples above indicate that several regional governments have taken proactive measures in support of national plans and their role is critical in hastening the adoption of renewable energy in the country. The efforts demonstrate high-level enthusiasm and commitment to being part of the solutions.

However, the energy transition faces challenges such as financial barriers, limited policy frameworks, and lack of awareness and understanding of regional governments on how critical it is to actualize the transition to renewable energy in their regions.

In fact, the central government has not paid attention yet to regional governments' actions in terms of support for accelerating the transition. If more regional governments have the will and take action to support the transition in their regions, more renewable energy will be deployed, and the transition can take place toward net zero.

According to Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) research in 2019, hydro, geothermal, biomass and other renewables such as solar and wind are among Indonesia's plentiful nonfossil energy resources, with a renewable energy potential of roughly 441.7 gigawatts, but only 2 percent, around 9 GW, has been used. And this is despite the fact that solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is easy to implement in all regions in Indonesia due to the country’s equatorial position.

According to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry (2021), the total potential of solar energy in Indonesia amounts to 207 GW, which is spread evenly throughout the country’s regions. Additionally, the ministry report also states that solar PV investment costs have decreased by 80 percent in the past decade.

These circumstances should be used by the central government to invite all regional governments to promote action to deploy more renewable energy, with particular prioritization for solar energy in their regions. With the cooperation of the regional governments, the deployment of renewable energy at the regional level will be a success.

Furthermore, the application of solar PV technology will be significant if the regional governments fully support its implementation, including providing incentives for private sector involvement, preparing regulations, and boosting public awareness to assist its development. The country's success in promoting the energy transition at the regional level hinges on the success of regional leaders.

To enable the energy transition in Indonesia, cooperation between governments at all levels, including regional, local and key ministries of central governments, as well as the contributions of the private sector and communities is crucial. The energy-transition process will accelerate if other provinces in Indonesia share the same enthusiasm as the provinces stated above for increasing renewable energy capacity in their regions.

Although the central government has the lead role in driving the transition, regional governments must be involved to speed up the process by installing more renewable energy capacity in the regions and maximizing its potential across the country. The role of regional governments in the battle against climate change and to speed energy transition is undoubtedly pivotal.

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Citra Endah Nur Setyawati is a research associate at the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), Jakarta, where Venkatachalam Anbumozhi is the director of research strategy and innovation. The views expressed are their own.