Indonesia will not be able to shut down all coal and other fossil-fuel power stations within 15 years, says special presidential envoy Hashim Djojohadikusumo, walking back a statement made by President Prabowo Subianto at last year’s G20 summit.
pecial presidential envoy for energy and the environment Hashim Djojohadikusumo has dismissed the possibility of Indonesia shutting down all coal and other fossil-fuel power stations in the next 15 years, walking back a statement made by President Prabowo Subianto at last year’s Group of Twenty (G20) summit.
Hashim claimed news outlets had “misunderstood” the Prabowo administration’s plan to retire all such facilities by 2040.
“I was misquoted by the media; [which made it sound] as if the Prabowo-Gibran administration would shut down all coal fleets [by] 2040; that is not true,” he said in Jakarta on Friday, explaining that he meant that the government would not build any new coal-fired power plants after 2040, in accordance with the country’s energy transition commitment.
“[The statements] were misquoted. We do not want to commit economic suicide. If we close all steam power plants, [it could] jeopardize our economy. So [the process] must be balanced.”
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Hashim, a businessman who is also the President’s brother, emphasized that no country in the world had completely shut down coal-fired power plants. He also referred to the experience of closing nuclear power plants in Germany, which is now facing economic stagnation caused by an energy crisis.
“No country on earth will close steam power plants, none. [A case for a] nuclear power [phaseout] exists, that's Germany, but Germany is now [dealing with] the negative impacts of the nuclear power plant closures,” he said.
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