Marcel Silvius, Frank Rijsberman (JP/Riza Roidila Mufti)

In recent years, Indonesia has seen growing interest in green growth development as the government and the public are now more aware of sustainability issues and taking into account environmental as well as social aspects in development.

The Jakarta Post’s Riza Roidila Mufti spoke with Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) director general Frank Rijsberman and GGGI Indonesia country representative Marcel Silvius on green development in Indonesia.

The GGGI is an international organization that works with governments around the world to assist them on two things: to have a greener national economic plan and to find ways to make their economy more sustainable and more inclusive. In Indonesia, the GGGI is collaborating with several ministries to work on green growth projects by driving investment and designing green projects with social, environmental and economic benefits.

Question: How is green growth development going so far in Indonesia? Where are we now?

Silvius: I think in these past few years, there is progress in Indonesia. If you asked about green growth three years ago, there would be very few people in the government who knew about this. At the moment, green growth is the central point in the planning process of the government. We find there are a lot of good ideas and ambitions in Indonesia, but when it comes down to implementation, there is still a need for more concrete projects
on the ground.

Rijsberman: We see a lot of good will in Indonesia for green growth development. However, there are always challenges. Indonesia is a country that uses a lot of coal, one of the contributors to bad air, and not that much renewable energy yet. The good news is, there are many opportunities in green growth to overcome these challenges, such as in renewable energy, in electric vehicles. However, I agree with Greta Thunberg: We have to take action now!

Can you tell us how your work with the government is going so far in Indonesia?

Silvius: We started our work in Indonesia in 2013 with phase one, which we focused on developing a road map for green growth in Indonesia. It was led by the National Development Planning Ministry [Bappenas]. The road map sets a basis for green development, helps raise awareness on it and sets how green growth could be achieved in Indonesia.

In 2016, we started phase two of the program where the road map is turned into a green growth program and in which we started implementing some of the ideas. That’s the current phase we are working on at the moment. Aside from Bappenas, we are working with a number of ministries, including the Environment and Forestry Ministry, the Energy [and Mineral Resources] Ministry, particularly the department of renewable energy and the Finance Ministry […] We’re also working with the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister, with whom we are making a guideline for a green growth model for a Special Economic Zone.

Could you tell us about some of the projects you have been working on with the government?

Rijsberman: The GGGI has helped to establish some projects in Indonesia. For example, in the energy sector, there is a very interesting program in East Nusa Tenggara, the Hybrid Solar PV [Photovoltaics] Project, where we are looking at introducing solar PVs in combination with the existing traditional diesel-based power grid. The key result indicates that there is the potential to reduce diesel consumptions by 236 million liters or equivalent to a total reduction of 549,300 CO2 emissions over 20 years. There is also project that looks at emission reduction in the entire province of East Kalimantan. All forest areas would be covered. It’s possible to reduce 83 million tons of CO2 with the project.

Compared to other countries in the Asia Pacific, what do you think of Indonesia’s green growth? Are we progressing enough?

Rijsberman: Other countries are making a lot of progress, particularly in renewable energy, which we have not seen much in Indonesia. India in 2017, for example, had a big change from planning a lot of coal to switching to solar energy.

In China, people became sick of not being able to see the blue sky, so President Xi [Jinping] made having a blue sky a key part of the government’s target. Last year, Beijing had cleaner air than Seoul and Jakarta at times. That’s because they had closed down coal fire power plants around Beijing. Many motorbikes in Beijing are electric. In Shenzhen, all 16,000 buses are electric. So, China may have a lot of pollution, but it is taking serious steps to clean [the air], showing it is feasible.

And Vietnam this year has made a lot of progress, generating 4.5 gigawatts [from] 82 [solar power plants] all funded by the private sector. About 8 percent of all its energy is now solar powered. And next year, I predict a similar push for wind power.

The Philippines also made more progress than Indonesia in renewable energy — for sustainable tourism. This year, the president closed one island because it had too many hotels and highly polluted waters. They took Palawan, the island where we have shown green growth as an example for green development, where there aren’t too many hotels and the tuk tuk [motorized rickshaw] are electric, so there are opportunities to develop your natural resources without tourists messing it up.

What is the biggest challenge for green growth in Indonesia?

Silvius: It is difficult to say why some countries are taking certain steps and not others. I think it’s clear that no country is doing it perfectly.

They all have to learn from each other. I think in Indonesia, the situation is different in the energy side than other countries. In Indonesia, you have a different setup in the whole industry, in energy mix, energy management with the [state-owned electricity firm] PLN; other countries don’t have institutions like that.

Here, you also have your archipelagic country, which creates certain issues. Some areas are more developed than other areas, which creates differences. In smaller countries, it is easier to establish a smart grid than in a country like Indonesia with multiple large grids like Sumatra, Java and Kalimantan. So, there are bigger problems that Indonesia may encounter, but also the issues are in the policy form. There are steps that should have been taken. Indonesia has moved pretty slowly, particularly in the energy side.

In Indonesia, there are still a lot of subsidies for fossil fuels [as] part of the energy mix but no subsidies for the renewable energy mix. That makes it more difficult for renewable energy to compete with fossil fuels.

Rijsberman: We also think the awareness in Indonesia is not that high. There are not many environmental journalists, not many ordinary citizens who know about climate change, so we think we have a shared responsibility — the media, education and organizations like ours — to raise more awareness.

What is the best way to raise public awareness on the importance of green growth?

Rijsberman: There is a bit of cultural independence with how every society learns. Sometimes, there are also specific events that creates awareness about the environment. For instance, natural events like typhoons in the Philippines or heatwaves in New York [the United States] that make people realize, ‘Wow this is terrible, we cannot take this anymore’.

Public awareness can be also increased through several events. In Mongolia, for example, we help the government to come up with training for its civil servants. We also help public schools create awareness on climate change and [preserving the] environment for elementary school students.

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