The Indonesian government is committed to increasing the share of renewable energy to a minimum of 23% by 2025 and reducing 198 million tons of emissions in the same year. In the long term, the Government targets to achieve Net-Zero Emissions and fully utilize renewable energy in the national power generation mix by 2060.
To increase the use of renewable energy, the Government of Indonesia is collaborating with other countries including Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland) which have proven successful in developing clean energy. This collaboration is expected to provide potential support for Indonesia to accelerate the energy transition and target net zero emissions.
“The energy transition has become one of the main focuses of the global climate change agenda. Therefore, during this year’s G20 Presidency, Indonesia presented the energy transition as one of the three points of discussion,” said Secretary General of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Rida Mulyana in his remarks at the Indonesia-Nordic Energy Investment Day business forum: Collaboration to achieve Net – Zero Emission Target, Thursday (8/12).
In the midst of war events, continued Rida, Russia and Ukraine which caused a multidimensional crisis, the G20 Energy Transition working group produced a consensus on the Bali Compact to ensure a smooth and effective energy transition for G20 member countries. “One of the principles of the Bali Compact is highlighting the importance of international partnerships to support developing economies in increasing investment towards a low or net-zero emission energy system,” continued Rida.
According to Rida, in the next four decades, Indonesia will generate more than 580 GW of electricity from solar, hydro, geothermal and hydrogen. Although fossil energy, such as oil and gas will support the transition to a cleaner energy system, the Government of Indonesia has established a strategy to reduce the use of fossil energy, by converting fossil energy to renewable energy such as phasing out the operation of coal-based power plants. “We need investments and big leaps to support a clean energy transition worth USD 25-30 billion in meeting the mid-term target of 2030,” explained Rida.
Indonesia and the Nordic countries have forged good cooperation in the energy sector so far, both Government to Government and Business to Business. At the government level, Indonesia has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Finland regarding sustainable, clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency. Together with Denmark regarding the development of EBT and energy conservation, Norway in the energy sector, Sweden regarding renewable energy and energy consulting with Norway. “We have the Indonesia-Denmark Energy Partnership Program (INDODEPP), and we also have a capacity building program and potential geothermal initiatives with Iceland,” said Rida.
For information, in early 2022, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif accompanied by Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources officials had the opportunity to visit three Nordic countries to show Indonesia’s desire to explore further and strengthen energy partnerships. At that time, the delegation met and discussed with local government officials and prominent business leaders.
Minister Arifin has identified and noted possibilities for following up on energy cooperation between Indonesia and its Nordic partners and today’s forum is a follow-up to concretize what was discussed at the previous meeting. (SF)
