Indonesia’s new climate plan: Slow progress but change imminent

(China Dialogue, 19 Dec 2022) The improved national targets are still a long way from a 1.5C pathway finds Caroline Bulolo.

Indonesia’s latest climate plan, released shortly before the COP27 climate talks, still involves coal and fails to align the country with a pathway that keeps global warming within 1.5C. However, a major foreign investment deal – the Just Energy Transition Partnership – subsequently announced at the G20 summit in Bali could accelerate the transition if the government put the right policies in place.

In its national climate plan, known as an enhanced nationally determined contribution (NDC), Indonesia has made only a slight change to the initial greenhouse gas targets it submitted following its ratification of the Paris Agreement in 2016. By 2030, the country will reduce emissions by 31.9% compared to a business-as-usual scenario, up on the 29% in the 2016 plan. If given appropriate international financial support, it will cut emissions by 43.2%, up from 41%.

The NDC provides no detail on phasing out the country’s coal power plants, which has been called for by environmentalists for years.

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China Dialogue, 19 Dec 2022: Indonesia’s new climate plan: Slow progress but change imminent