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After 100 days, little to show for Prabowo’s energy, food security plans
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Farmers plant rice in a paddy field on June 28, 2024, at Lambaro in Aceh. (AFP/Chaideer Mahyuddin)
P
resident Prabowo Subianto kicked off his term with promises to make Indonesia less dependent on fuel and food imports by ramping up renewable energy supply and building massive agricultural estates, sparking hope but also skepticism as predecessors have tried the same, and failed.
One hundred days into his presidency, Prabowo’s ambitious vows of energy and food security have yet to materialize in actionable, short-term rules, with the administration’s stance on the energy transition and agricultural self-sufficiency described as lacking clear direction.
At the last Group of Twenty (G20) meeting, Prabowo outlined an ambitious plan to phase out all coal and fossil-fuel power plants within 15 years and to develop over 75 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity, but experts say that plan lacks details.
“Specifically, [we question] how to achieve the target of 23 percent renewables in the energy mix in 2025 and achieve 100 percent renewable energy in the next 10 years,” Fabby Tumiwa, executive director of the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR), said in a statement on Jan. 22.
So far, the government has been focusing on long-term targets, pushing for state-owned electricity company PLN’s latest Electricity Procurement Business Plan (RUPTL), for instance, to be dominated by renewables.
“The government must prepare more strategic planning, like expediting the establishment of 9 GW of renewable energy capacity this year,” Fabby said.
Investors eagerly await the release of the new RUPTL, which was meant to be published last year under then-president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s leadership but has yet to materialize.
