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Presidential candidates vow to stay the course on energy transition
All three presidential candidates have expressed their intention to continue on Indonesia’s energy transition path as the country strives to secure funds for switching off coal-fired power plants and increasing the use of renewable energy.
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Smoke and steam billow from the coal-fired power plant owned by Indonesia Power, next to an area for the Jawa 9 and 10 coal-fired steam power plant project in Suralaya, Banten, on July 11, 2020. (Reuters/WILLY KURNIAWAN)
The three presidential candidates have expressed their intention to reduce Indonesia’s reliance on coal and increase the share of renewables as the government strives to secure external funding for its costly energy transition.
In the “Vision and Mission” statements published for their respective election campaigns, the candidate pairs all state the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the early retirement of coal-fired power plants, as well as boosting renewable energy development in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
The government aims for the renewable energy percentage in the national energy mix to reach 23 percent by 2025. As of July this year, renewable energy made up around 15 percent of Indonesia’s installed electricity-generating capacity.
Surya Tjandra, a campaign team member of the presidential and vice-presidential ticket of Anies Baswedan and Muhaimin Iskandar, said they were prepared to proceed with the early coal plant retirement projects and offer incentives to increase renewable energy use.
“AMIN [Anies-Muhaimin] is committed not only to dealing with the people’s dependence on fossil fuels but also meeting overall emissions-reduction targets,” he said in a statement to The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Coal power currently accounts for around 43 percent of Indonesia’s electricity mix.
The country had 18.8 gigawatts of coal power under construction at the end of 2022, according to a 2023 report by Global Energy Monitor (GEM), which uses publicly available data on company plans.
