Industrial growth could keep Indonesia stuck on coal, delaying clean energy shift

[JAKARTA] Indonesia’s push for rapid industrialisation is likely to keep coal at the core of its energy strategy for at least another decade, even as the country struggles with its decarbonisation goals.

As the country aims to phase out coal by 2040, rising energy demands from sectors such as copper and aluminium are forcing a revision of its energy road map, with President Prabowo Subianto’s 8 per cent growth target heavily reliant on these energy-intensive industries. This risks delaying the country’s transition to cleaner energy.

Nuki Agya Utama, director of energy policy and head of the Asia Zero Emission Center at the Economic Research Institute for Asean and East Asia (ERIA), projects that the use of coal-fired power plants in Indonesia will continue to rise in the coming years.