Jakarta. President Prabowo Subianto recently revised Indonesia’s net zero target from 2060 to 2050, much earlier compared to what his predecessor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had been aiming for. 

Prabowo, who has just marked one month in office, unveiled the more ambitious net zero plans at the G20 talks in Rio de Janeiro. Prabowo said that Indonesia’s abundance of renewable energy would help the archipelagic country meet its climate goals faster.

“We are very optimistic that we can achieve net zero [emissions] by 2050,” Prabowo said.

According to Prabowo, Indonesia intends to retire all of its coal-fired power plants over the next 15 years. Indonesia plans to increase over 75 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity within the same period. Prabowo claimed that Indonesia held tremendous geothermal reserves, although he did not go into details on its potential. 

“We are also situated along the Equator. Therefore, we have more than plenty of sunlight to fuel solar-based energy. We have other sources of renewables,” Prabowo said.

Indonesia is estimated to have 24 gigawatts of potential geothermal power, and 169 gigawatts of solar energy, government data shows. The country’s potential hydropower and wind energy reach 95 gigawatts and 68 gigawatts, respectively.

The previous Jokowi government had been seeking to achieve net zero emission by 2060 or sooner -- a goal that the ex-president admitted to require a huge chunk of money. On multiple occasions, Jokowi has been nudging advanced economies into walking the talk on climate financing. Jokowi even told the UN climate talks COP28 that Indonesia would need over $1 trillion to reach net zero emission by 2060.

The coal-reliant Indonesia has received multiple international funding for the country to wean off the combustible black rock. As a case in point, it secured a $20 billion climate financing package from wealthy countries and international financial institutions under the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) scheme. Just a few months ago, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a $500 million policy-based loan to help Indonesia shift to clean energy. Indonesia is also eyeing the freshly launched UK-led Global Clean Power Alliance as an alternative source of funding for its energy transition projects.

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