Indonesia Aims to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 32% through Its Own Efforts

Indonesia targets to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 32% through its own efforts and 41% with the help of international support. Therefore, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) is committed to keep reducing GHG emissions. This commitment is outlined in the Enhanced Nationally Determined Contribution (E-NDC) document for 2030.

The Director-General of Electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), Jisman Hutajulu, stated that “the energy sector’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction target in 2030 is 358 million tons of CO2 with domestic capability and 446 million tons of CO2 with international assistance from a business-as-usual scenario,” quoted on Friday (24/3/2023).

To achieve this goal, Jisman said that the Ministry of ESDM has collaborated with other ministries, institutions, and related stakeholders to model the energy transition roadmap, which includes targets and milestones that Indonesia will pursue from the energy supply and demand side towards achieving Net Zero Emissions by 2060 or earlier.

“Based on this roadmap, the energy sector’s GHG emissions are projected to decrease by 93% from the business-as-usual scenario, where the remaining emissions produced will be 129.4 million tons of CO2 in 2060,” Jisman added.

To achieve this, Jisman continued, several strategies are needed to accelerate the reduction of GHG emissions in the energy sector. The first is to accelerate the development of renewable energy-based power plants and interconnections through a supergrid.

“In the energy transition roadmap, Indonesia’s projected electricity demand in 2060 will reach 1,942 Tera Watt Hour (TWh), with per capita electricity consumption of 5,862 KWh. This electricity will be generated 100% from renewable energy sources with a total capacity of around 708 Gigawatts (GW) in 2060,” Jisman explained.

The next strategy is to implement a moratorium on coal-fired power plants and to retire existing ones early. Then, apply energy efficiency principles massively.

The fourth strategy is to promote the use of electric vehicles and induction stoves on a massive scale. Lastly, the development of a smart grid to address intermittency in variable renewable energy.

Despite these strategies, Jisman noted that reducing GHG emissions in the energy sector is not an easy task as there are many challenges such as infrastructure project funding, decarbonization expansion, technology development, and capacity building of human resources.

“That is why we hope that the MKI meeting can produce and provide recommendations to the government on reducing GHG emissions and achieving NZE, especially in the electricity sector,” he concluded.