42: The Future of Environmental Policy

Indonesia

A Climate Pollinator story by Sierra Ross Richer

Plastic bags are banned in Johana Christianti’s home city of Bogor, Indonesia. She believes that this kind of government regulation is critical for curbing climate change. 

Johana graduated from law school in Indonesia two years ago. She is currently doing a year of service in Burkina Faso through the Young Anabaptist Mennonite Exchange Network (YAMEN) program of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC); when she returns home after her term, she hopes to become a lawyer of environmental law. 

“Climate change is a real thing,” Johana said, “and through law, we can help change things.” 

Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world, and is one of the top emitters of greenhouse gasses. Deforestation has been a driver of CO2 emissions in the last few decades. In addition, almost all of the developing country’s energy currently comes from burning fossil fuels, like coal.  

Fossil fuel extraction is a major cause of deforestation in Indonesia, Johana said. The southeast Asian country is the largest exporter of coal in the world, and, according to an Associated Press report, relies on the highly-polluting fossil fuel for  60 percent of its energy. 

Johana believes it will take government policies to protect the nation’s rainforests. The problem is that the government can’t prohibit fossil fuel extraction until there are alternative energy sources in place. 

“Honestly,” Johana said, “as a country we don’t have the ability and the technology to (develop) cleaner sources of energy yet, like geothermal. We are trying, but at the same time, we don’t really have the resources for that yet.” 

This may be changing. In November of last year, Indonesia received a 20 billion dollar Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) deal meant to help the country’s power sector become net zero for CO2 emissions by 2050. 

The plan includes increasing renewable energy sources, like solar, geothermal, wind and hydropower to 30 percent by 2030. 

“Indonesia is in the ring of fire,” Johana said. This means that earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common, but it also means that there is a lot of potential for harnessing geothermal energy. The book Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming published in 2017, ranks geothermal energy as the 18th most effective solution for lowering greenhouse gas emissions. 

Another option (ranked 29th by Drawdown) is wave and tidal energy. “We are a country with lots of sea,” Johana said, “so it might be very expensive, but we could use waves for energy.” 

Finally, Johana sees solar as a promising option. Drawdown ranks solar farms and rooftop solar 8th and 10th respectively, and, Johana said, Indonesia is located on the equator which means it has access to direct sunlight all year round. 

All of these alternatives are expensive and will require new technologies, as well as new government policies, to implement. 

Johana’s time in Burkina Faso has shown her that change is possible.  

“In Indonesia, if you use solar panels you are really rich,” she said, “but here, people use them very often.” There’s no reason that can’t become the case in Indonesia some day.