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'No urgency' for Indonesia to reach net zero: Energy ministry official
Indonesia may maintain its unambitious climate policy and avoid prioritizing its net zero commitment for decades to come, despite official and independent projections showing that doing so would boost both growth and jobs.
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Environmental activists march toward the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry in Central Jakarta during the Asia Climate Rally on Nov. 27, 2020. The rally demanded the government and businesses to stop funding fossil fuel expansion as part of its climate action commitments. JP/Dhoni Setiawan (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
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top energy ministry official has said that achieving net zero was not an urgent priority for the nation’s power industry, signaling the government’s stance toward carbon neutrality.
“Other countries have declared their net zero emission targets. Indonesia has not and frankly, I also see no urgency yet," Rida Mulyana, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s electricity director general, told a virtual press conference last Friday. "But we will still prepare to achieve it.”
The energy ministry released a report earlier this year that included a pledge to attain net zero in the power sector by 2050.
Many countries, including the UK, Japan and China, have pledged in the last few years to achieve net zero and fulfill the landmark Paris Climate Agreement, which has increased pressure on other countries to follow suit.
Read also: Energy ministry wants cleaner power
While Rida acknowledged that the government was committed to reducing coal-fired power plants, he noted that regulators were leaning toward the plants’ “natural retirement”, a strategy that was time consuming but less costly than early retirement in that it absolved the government of compensating power plant developers.
“Until now, we are still taking the natural retirement option, so we will not force the plants to retire [early],” said Rida.
