Indonesia's coal habit is undercutting its climate promises

Even as the world pushes toward cleaner energy, Southeast Asia's appetite for coal is growing, and Indonesia is leading the way. As the Associated Press reports, the region's coal demand is set to rise more than 4 percent a year through the end of the decade, with Indonesia making up over half of that growth. That threatens a US$15.5 billion deal, signed in 2022, to help Indonesia shift to clean energy.

The signals are going the wrong way. An effort to retire a coal plant in West Java early collapsed, and Indonesia's updated climate pledge quietly dropped an earlier promise to phase out coal by 2040. One tracker of climate action rated the new plan "critically insufficient." The country is even weighing whether to allow new coal plants to be built.

Hashim Djojohadikusumo, the president's brother and Indonesia's climate envoy, said the country is "sticking with a phase-down," not a phase-out, of fossil fuels, meaning it will use less coal over time but not quit it. For a country already hit by deadly floods linked to a changing climate, the direction has drawn sharp criticism.

Why it matters

Burning more coal means more of the pollution that drives the extreme weather Indonesia is already suffering, from floods to heat. It also puts at risk the foreign money offered to help the country switch to cleaner power. Watch whether Indonesia builds new coal plants, or finally starts closing old ones.