Team Europe Green Conference: Underlines EU’s support to accelerate Indonesia’s energy transition

Team Europe Green Conference: Underlines European Union’s support to accelerate Indonesia’s energy transition

The Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Indonesia presented a two-day conference on 24-25 October 2023 on how the EU and the EU Member States (Team Europe) can support a Just Energy Transition in Indonesia, themed “Pathways to a Prosperous Indonesia – Powered by Renewable Energy”. The Conference brought together many stakeholders in the energy sector, from government, international organisations, private sector to civil society.

The EU Ambassador to Indonesia, H.E. Denis Chaibi, highlighted the EU’s energy transition strategy and Team Europe’s approach. Ambassador Chaibi said, “EU leaders want a fast green transition to address climate change and energy insecurity. In addition, energy transition in Europe has proven to be one of the biggest sources of jobs for tomorrow.”

“The EU cannot work alone. We all need a global partnership. Team Europe can rely on the Global Gateway, a financial initiative pooling resources from EU, Member States’ financial institutions and the European Investment Bank to serve mutual interests with partner countries. Team Europe has committed 3.5 billion euro for Indonesia’s Just Energy Transition Partnership. What is needed now is the political will, ambition and the right projects. Indonesia is blessed with a huge renewable energy potential and the EU is looking forward to taking the EU-Indonesia partnership to the next level,” added Ambassador Chaibi.

Ambassadors and representatives from six EU Member States namely Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, France and Denmark shared their own countries’ experiences as well as their collaboration with Indonesia on Energy Transition. The EU representatives reiterated that the EU and its Member States stand ready to offer comprehensive support and assistance to facilitate Indonesia's energy transition.

Special Advisor to the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Ego Syahrial reiterated that “Indonesia is committed to achieve the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and to achieve Net Zero by 2060 or sooner. In the long-term, there are opportunities for the development of solar, geothermal, hydro power, nuclear, and green hydrogen facilities, as coal fired plants will be totally phased out by 2058.”

“Green Economy and Net Zero Policies are of key importance for our Long-Term Development Plan. Green Financing, such as carbon tax and carbon pricing will be key instruments in the implementation,” said the Deputy for Maritime Affairs and Natural Resources of the Ministry of National Development Planning, Dr Vivi Yulaswati MSc.

Director General of New, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Yudho Dwinanda Priaadi highlighted how Indonesia is optimising the availability and reach of renewable energy, among others by a programme. “The Indonesian super grid programme will allow us to integrate Indonesian islands into one national electricity grid, and through converting diesel power generation into environmentally friendly hybrid batteries, we will be able to supply power to remote islands and off-grid areas,” he explained.

Deputy of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) Secretariat Paul Butarbutar outlined the ongoing preparations of the JETP implementation plan and project pipeline and called o for more international cooperation and investments.

The Conference highlighted the importance of an enabling environment for increasing investment in Renewable Energy, and the announcement of the Head of Commission VII of the House of Representatives, Sugeng Suparwoto, that the New and Renewable Energy Law is expected to be approved by the end of this year or early next year was very much welcomed.

Some concrete examples of technologies and best practices from EU Member States for regulatory framework for energy transition and roll-out of renewables were highlighted, in particular for offshore wind, floating photovoltaic and tidal energy, which provide promising opportunities for Indonesia to scale up its energy transition.

Brent Elemans and Eric Arends from Pondera showed that there is potential to develop several gigawatts of offshore wind generating capacity in Indonesia, but that an efficient and stable regulatory framework needs to be developed for Indonesia to capitalise on this opportunity. Other speakers mentioned the importance of the energy transition to be fair and just, by creating job opportunities for people currently employed in the fossil fuel industry.

The Conference has offered a good match between Indonesia’s priorities and what the EU has to offer, where concrete cooperation can be promoted to tackle fossil fuel subsidies, generate affordable electricity, create high quality jobs, improve the air quality and how to best navigate the just energy transition in such a manner that no one is left behind.