VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Feb. 3 - The governments of Indonesia and Germany have agreed to support efforts towards clean energy transition under the Clean, Affordable, Secure Energy (CASE) program in Southeast Asia.

“One of the strategic sectors that plays a role in achieving the national greenhouse gas emission reduction target is energy, including power plants,” director of electricity, telecommunications and informatics at the Ministry of National Development Planning / Bappenas, Rachmat Mardiana, said during an online workshop on the CASE program here on Tuesday.

He said he hopes that by 2024 as many as 20 percent of power plants in Indonesia will use renewable energy.

The electricity sector is one of the sectors that can oil the wheels of the economy and help bring about sustainable development while reducing national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, he remarked.

Unfortunately, this sector is still dominated by the use of fossil fuels, he said.

For this reason, a CASE program was held in Indonesia with the aim of substantively changing the direction of the energy sector, especially the electricity sector in Indonesia, and make a case for transitioning to clean energy, he added.

Indonesia has ratified the Paris Agreement through Law Number 16 of 2016 and is targeting to reduce GHG emissions by 29 percent by 2030.

CASE is a regional agenda that is being implemented in the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia until February, 2024.

Related news: Govt stanch in commitment to sustainable utilization of clean energy

Related news: Greenpeace campaigns on clean energy, alerts Jokowi's cabinet

In Indonesia, this program is being carried out by a consortium comprising Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Agora Energiewende, the New Climate Institute (NCI), and the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR), a civil society organization based in Indonesia.

Meanwhile, executive director of IESR, Fabby Tumiwa, explained that Indonesia's potential for optimizing renewable energy sources is quite huge.

The development of clean energy is increasingly promising and dominated by solar power plants and wind power plants, which require lower investment costs, he pointed out.

As one of the countries with high emission levels, Indonesia is required to reduce its fossil energy consumption by quickly making a transition to clean energy, particularly in the power sector.

"In the National Energy Plan, the government has a target of 23 percent of the renewable energy mix in 2025. According to the IESR analysis, to achieve this target, Indonesia must add about two to three GW of renewable energy capacity every year until 2025," said Tumiwa.

However, the IESR’s comprehensive analysis has shown that in the last three years, the average addition of renewable energy capacity has been only 250-350 MW, he noted.

In 2021, it is estimated to reach just around 400-500 MW, he added. (Antaranews)