Jakarta. Indonesia plans to use the COP30 momentum as an opportunity to woo foreign buyers into purchasing its carbon credits following sluggish demand.

President Prabowo Subianto is set to skip the UN climate conference COP30 in Belém next month. However, the retired army general has promised that he would send a “strong delegation” to represent the coal-reliant and forested country. 

Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni, who is part of the delegation, revealed to the press on Friday evening that promoting Indonesia’s carbon market would be high up on the to-do list. The Indonesian team is scheduled for a meeting with potential foreign buyers of its carbon credits in São Paulo on Nov. 8. They will ink a memorandum of understanding with the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), an independent governance body for the market.

Prabowo recently inked a presidential decree to restart international carbon trading after a hiatus. The document also seeks to provide greater certainty for the voluntary carbon market (VCM). This market lets the private sector voluntarily buy and sell carbon offset credits. 

“The potential buyers whom we will meet are actually investors who have long been interested in green investment. … Our carbon exchange [IDXCarbon] has been sluggish. There were some structural challenges back then. Investors did not have confidence in the return, and so we issued the decree,” Raja Juli said. 

He added: “Our partnership with ICVCM will help us maintain the integrity of the carbon market to prevent carbon leakage or greenwashing.”

Government estimates showed that Indonesia had a carbon trading potential of around 13.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent between 2024 and 2050. With an average carbon price of $15/ton, the economic potential can reach Rp 127.98 trillion (approximately $7.7 billion) a year. The carbon market can also generate Rp 85.26 trillion annually if the carbon price stands at around $10/ton.

Under the presidential decree signed by Prabowo on Oct. 10, Indonesia accepts international trade in carbon-offset units that comply with its national standards or those set by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as by other international certifiers.

Former President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo launched IDXCarbon in September 2023.

According to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, Indonesia's carbon market remains stagnant, with transaction value plummeting to just Rp 1 billion between March and September 2025. The trade volume amounted to 27,613 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. The market saw transaction values of Rp 31 billion in the final three months of 2023. About 494,254 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent were traded over the said period.

Indonesia is home to the world’s third-largest tropical rainforests, spanning 125.9 million hectares.