Posted on 29 Apr 2015
RI attacked over coal-fired plant project
Attended by hundreds of foreign
investors, the Tropical Landscapes Summit in Jakarta was supposed to promote
environmentally friendly infrastructure projects, but instead the Indonesian
government was busy dodging attacks directed at its plan to build the biggest
coal-fired electrical plant in Asia.
Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro claimed that the government effectively
had no cheaper economic alternative than to build a 2,000-megawatt (MW) power
plant in Batang, Central Java, to support economic growth and meet the
country’s growing electricity needs.
“Of course, we had a good discussion yesterday with president Calderón. I know
he’s not too happy with the coal-powered plant,” Bambang said Monday, referring
to former Mexico president Felipe Calderón, who spoke before him and called on
Indonesia to move away from fossil fuel-based infrastructure utilizing coal and
oil.
“Unfortunately, this [coal] is an abundant energy source available in Indonesia
and it is still relatively cheap in financial terms,” the finance minister said
Tuesday in his keynote speech delivered at the summit.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has set an ambitious target to build power
plants with a combined capacity of 35,000 MW over five years, with his
government currently working to invite more private sector investors into the
country’s electricity industry.
But such an ambitious goal has also raised questions among environmental
activists, who fear that the government might prioritize building cheap,
environmentally unsustainable power plants to ensure the targets can be met.
Calderón, who is also the chair of think-tank Global Commission on the Economy
and Climate, noted that the costs for solar and wind energy had been declining
on the last few years, suggesting the Indonesian government should capitalize
on the trend.
“It is not true that fossil fuels, either oil or coal, will be cheap forever,”
stated Calderón. “Indonesia has an incredible capacity and the natural
resources to go all the way to renewables.”
The US$4 billion coal-powered plant in Batang, which was developed by a joint
consortium that includes Jakarta-listed PT Adaro Energy and Japanese investors
J-Power Electric Power Development Co. Ltd. and Itochu Corp., was seen as one
of the most controversial infrastructure projects in Indonesia, especially
among environmental groups.
“We and our colleagues in Japan have been working actively to campaign against
the development of the power plant in Batang, as long as the environmental
issues are not yet settled,” Nyoman Iswarayoga, the advocacy director of the
World Wide Fund for Nature in Indonesia, said on Tuesday.
“It is no secret that, among all energy sources available in the world, coal
remains the dirtiest,” he stated.
The coal-fired power plant, however, was seen as the icon of the government’s
public-private partnership (PPP) projects, with President Jokowi himself
pledging to be directly involved in the project so that it would run smoothly.
The development of the Batang power plant itself has been hampered by land
acquisition issues, as the 226-hectare project would be built on productive
farms belonging to local people, many of whom refused to sell their land.
Nevertheless, government officials have claimed that the problem of acquiring
the land from the locals has been settled and the construction of the Batang
power plant is slated to begin as early as the end of this month.
Attended
by hundreds of foreign investors, the Tropical Landscapes Summit in
Jakarta was supposed to promote environmentally friendly infrastructure
projects, but instead the Indonesian government was busy dodging attacks
directed at its plan to build the biggest coal-fired electrical plant
in Asia.
Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro claimed that the
government effectively had no cheaper economic alternative than to build
a 2,000-megawatt (MW) power plant in Batang, Central Java, to support
economic growth and meet the country’s growing electricity needs.
“Of
course, we had a good discussion yesterday with president Calderón. I
know he’s not too happy with the coal-powered plant,” Bambang said
Monday, referring to former Mexico president Felipe Calderón, who spoke
before him and called on Indonesia to move away from fossil fuel-based
infrastructure utilizing coal and oil.
“Unfortunately, this
[coal] is an abundant energy source available in Indonesia and it is
still relatively cheap in financial terms,” the finance minister said
Tuesday in his keynote speech delivered at the summit.
President
Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has set an ambitious target to build power plants
with a combined capacity of 35,000 MW over five years, with his
government currently working to invite more private sector investors
into the country’s electricity industry.
But such an ambitious
goal has also raised questions among environmental activists, who fear
that the government might prioritize building cheap, environmentally
unsustainable power plants to ensure the targets can be met.
Calderón,
who is also the chair of think-tank Global Commission on the Economy
and Climate, noted that the costs for solar and wind energy had been
declining on the last few years, suggesting the Indonesian government
should capitalize on the trend.
“It is not true that fossil
fuels, either oil or coal, will be cheap forever,” stated Calderón.
“Indonesia has an incredible capacity and the natural resources to go
all the way to renewables.”
The US$4 billion coal-powered plant
in Batang, which was developed by a joint consortium that includes
Jakarta-listed PT Adaro Energy and Japanese investors J-Power Electric
Power Development Co. Ltd. and Itochu Corp., was seen as one of the most
controversial infrastructure projects in Indonesia, especially among
environmental groups.
“We and our colleagues in Japan have been
working actively to campaign against the development of the power plant
in Batang, as long as the environmental issues are not yet settled,”
Nyoman Iswarayoga, the advocacy director of the World Wide Fund for
Nature in Indonesia, said on Tuesday.
“It is no secret that, among all energy sources available in the world, coal remains the dirtiest,” he stated.
The
coal-fired power plant, however, was seen as the icon of the
government’s public-private partnership (PPP) projects, with President
Jokowi himself pledging to be directly involved in the project so that
it would run smoothly.
The development of the Batang power plant
itself has been hampered by land acquisition issues, as the 226-hectare
project would be built on productive farms belonging to local people,
many of whom refused to sell their land.
Nevertheless, government
officials have claimed that the problem of acquiring the land from the
locals has been settled and the construction of the Batang power plant
is slated to begin as early as the end of this month. - See more at:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/29/ri-attacked-over-coal-fired-plant-project.html#sthash.bvaOcPPz.dpuf
