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Coal-powered politics is choking the people. When will it stop?
Indonesia's powerful coal lobby, which includes top officials responsible for the energy transition, are benefiting even as they continue to pollute our political landscape and the very air we breathe.
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Chimneys of the Suralaya coal-fired power plant belch smoke on Sept. 21, 2018 into the skies above Cilegon, Banten. (AFP)
T
he worsening air pollution in Greater Jakarta is more than just a result of myopic, or misguided, urban policymaking. It is not, as the cheerleaders on the two sides of the political divide would have you believe, merely the price we have to pay for electing “the worst president ever” or “the worst governor in history”.
There is no question that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan could have done better, and sooner, to mitigate this chronic problem. They are both culpable for the pervasive smog choking the capital, which has affected more than 12,000 people and killed at least 10,000 every year, according to a 2023 study.
But we argue that the core issue goes beyond the question of technocratic competence. It is closely related to the fact that our body politic is currently colonized by powerful coal oligarchs who benefit from the use of dirty energy, which is mainly responsible for polluting the air we breathe.
Studies have shown that the coal-fired power plants surrounding Greater Jakarta contribute the most to the region’s worsening air quality.
A 2020 report from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clear Air (CREA) show that Jakarta is surrounded by more than 100 high emitting industrial facilities in Banten and West Java. These include seven coal-fired power plants in Suralaya, Cilegon, deemed the most polluting industrial complex in Southeast Asia. According to the report, hazardous materials from these facilities can be carried on the wind as far as 100 kilometers away to reach Jakarta and contribute to the city’s high level of PM 2.5 and other pollutants.
Government officials have openly challenged that narrative.
West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil has claimed that the prevalent use of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles contributed 75 percent to air pollution, while power plants contributed only 25 percent.
