The lack of transparency that surrounds Indonesia’s recent US$20 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership deal has called its investment plan into question, 350.org, an international environmental non-government organization (NGO) said.
Recent recruitment for the JETP secretariat, working with the Asia Development Bank, reveals that working group deliverables include false climate solutions such as carbon capture and sequestration, the NGO added.
“It is unfortunate that Indonesia plans to absorb JETP finance into carbon capture storage (CCS). CCS has been a fossil fuel fantasy for at least a decade and is often used as a "get out of jail free" card. Deploying the technology and scaling it up will take longer than we have and cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars in more fossil fuel subsidies. The JETP Secretariat needs to stop fantasizing about false solutions like CCS and start facing reality with a pathway to phase out fossil fuels,” said Sisilia Nurmala Dewi, 350.org Indonesia Team Lead said in a statement Friday.
Read also: IEEFA: Carbon capture and storage in the power sector will worsen energy inflation
She added that it is unjust for polluter companies to continue making profits and for their executives to receive massive salaries while the world is experiencing a cost-of-living crisis. If anything, the funds for carbon capture and storage should come from profits of fossil fuel companies. Carbon abatement technology should focus on substantial reduction, not delaying the reduction or offsetting emissions.
“For the JETP to be truly just, it should be a sustainable, renewable energy source that promotes climate justice. This means prioritizing communities that lack access to electricity, and providing assistance to impacted workers during the transition to renewables, so that they are not left behind. JETP should be a solution for the people, rather than a bailout for fossil fuel companies that have no intention of phasing out their operations,” she concluded.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak
