Three of Indonesia’s core manufacturing sectors are crucial to the nation’s new goal of reaching net zero before 2050, a new report from Monash University’s Climateworks Centre reveals.  

Indonesia ushered in a new presidential administration, and climate circles around the country and region are speculating what the Prabowo administration means for climate progress.  Through the Paris Agreement and its Long-Term Strategy for Low Carbon and Climate Resilience 2050,  Indonesia has committed to be a net zero economy, indicating it can be a low-carbon economy by 2060 or earlier.  Climate is not the only item on the administration’s agenda.

The approaching COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, will spotlight countries’ updated climate commitments to the Paris Agreement – their second nationally determined contributions (SNDCs).  SNDCs will set the stage for climate ambition in the next decade and strongly influence the national planning, policy and governance needed to affect change.

An edited excerpt from Anna Skarbek’s remarks on 17 October 2024, celebrating Climateworks Centre’s 15th anniversary at the State Library of Victoria.

A holistic, multidimensional approach to the energy transition was central to a two-week immersive experience for climate and energy leaders from Indonesia and Vietnam in early 2024.  Climateworks Centre hosted 15 leaders for the inaugural Southeast Asia Just Energy Transition Fellowship Program, as part of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Australia Awards Fellowships in February.

In April, Climateworks Centre co-hosted the inaugural Australia-Vietnam Green Economy Summit in Vietnam, where business leaders, policymakers and industry experts discussed the acceleration of opportunities for green economy investment and trade between the two countries.

Next week, more than 100 green energy, technology, education and finance companies from Australia and Vietnam will gather in Ho Chi Minh City.

This week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese welcomed leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states and Timor Leste for a special ASEAN summit in Melbourne, where – for the first time – climate and clean energy featured as a key agenda item.

Fifteen climate and energy leaders from Indonesia and Vietnam have converged on Melbourne for the Southeast Asia Just Energy Transition Fellowship.

How can business, finance and government work in harmony in Indonesia for a just transition of the country’s energy system?

Blue ecosystems and ocean-based sectors, such as maritime transport and offshore renewable energy, can contribute 49 per cent of Indonesia’s net zero emissions transition.

Baca versi Bahasa Indonesia Ocean-based climate action can deliver up to a quarter of the global annual greenhouse gas emissions cuts pledged under the Paris Agreement.

Climateworks is prioritising work with countries in Southeast Asia with high projected emissions growth, creating solutions that can be shared and scaled throughout the region.  Our approach focuses on partnerships, coalition building and capacity building.  In the past month, our work in the region has touched on all three of these areas, giving us opportunities to share solutions as well as learn from others championing the region’s decarbonisation.

KADIN Net Zero Hub has signed a two-year MoU with Monash University, Indonesia and Climateworks Centre to build capacity within Indonesia’s private sector and to accelerate corporate commitment to net zero emissions.

The final report of the IPCC’s sixth assessment cycle shows we have the tools, but not much time, to keep the global goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C within reach The end of the IPCC’s sixth assessment cycle marks a crossroads for global climate ambition.

Despite the country’s good progress in addressing climate change, two recent surveys have shown many Indonesians do not understand climate change or its causes.

The G20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation, bringing together the world’s major economies.

Southeast Asia’s importance to the global goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius cannot be overstated.

A G20 seminar series, co-hosted by Climateworks Centre in Jakarta, has explored innovative approaches to financing that can help emerging economies to transition to renewable energy in a fair and sustainable way.

At the COP26 in Glasgow, most ASEAN member states renewed their decarbonisation commitments, with nine out of ten members committing to net zero targets.

In the middle of the year, the Indonesian government will put its carbon tax into practice through a pilot program directed at coal-fired power plants, but it’s yet to be determined how much it will reduce Indonesia’s greenhouse emissions.

Having successfully decoupled emissions from economic growth, the European Union aims to be the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, Director-General, European Commission Directorate-General for Climate Action, Kurt Vandenberghe, told a Melbourne panel.

Vietnam’s rise to middle-income country status has been almost singular in its pace, typified by three-fold growth in per-capita GDP over the past 20 years and an 11 per cent decline in the poverty rate in the last decade alone.  Vietnam’s highly trade-oriented development – which last year grew nearly four times the middle-income country average – has been increasingly driven by energy-intensive manufactured goods and industrial products.  Industrial transformation is a critical imperative for Vietnam’s long-term economic viability and competitiveness.

Financing has long been recognised as a barrier to accelerating decarbonisation in Southeast Asia.

On 17 October 2024, amidst growing global and regional demand for sustainable energy solutions, Climateworks Centre and the Purnomo Yusgiantoro Center entered into a partnership to develop a roadmap for critical mineral processing for the low-carbon battery industry between Indonesia and Australia.

Climateworks Centre has launched a new program to facilitate the establishment of net zero industrial precincts in Vietnam.  This follows an MOU signed by Climateworks and Ho Chi Minh Institute of Development Studies on the sideline of Ho Chi Minh City Economic Forum (HEF).

Indonesia has signalled it could include blue carbon ecosystems — carbon-rich coastal and marine areas, like mangroves and seagrass — in its new climate targets.

Australian Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy Senator the Hon Jenny McAllister will meet Vietnamese and Australian business leaders, policymakers and industry experts in Vietnam to discuss how the countries can accelerate opportunities for green economy investment and trade. 

It’s a long and winding road – but the destination is crucial, writes Trang Nguyen for the Lowy Institute Interpreter (link opens Lowy Institute website).

Fossil fuels have driven rapid growth but the country has pledged – with global help – to be carbon neutral by 2050, writes Trang Nguyen for the Lowy Institute (link opens Lowy Institute website).

COP28 will take stock of the step change in ambition needed, but the gulf in climate finance promises and realities presents an obstacle to a stronger action.

Australia and Vietnam have shared ambitions to realise opportunities within the green economy, and the Australia-Vietnam Green Economy Program aims to reshape the contours of the green economy by equipping Australian businesses with the knowledge, capabilities and networks to catalyse sustainable business collaboration with Vietnam.

The Asia-Pacific’s greenhouse gas emissions keep rising and in some respects the region is going backwards. Climate action was the only Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 13) in which outcomes went backwards in the Asia-Pacific between 2015 and 2023.

Ensuring Southeast Asia’s energy security and financial stability are among the priorities while Indonesia is ASEAN Chair in 2023.

To amplify sustainability disclosure and promote corporate integrity, countries in the Asia-Pacific region are progressively refining their regulatory frameworks on corporate sustainability.

As a global player and a manufacturing hub experiencing economic growth, Vietnam can grasp the opportunities of the green economy by playing a central role in climate action, a briefing event has heard.

The potential of waqf, a form of endowment under Islamic law, to finance the clean energy transition in Indonesia is vast.

Islamic endowments, waqfs (pronounced ˈwəkf), have been gaining popularity in Indonesia as a funding source for its national climate goals.

A Climateworks project exploring ocean-based mitigation has secured the involvement of leading regional figures in marine science, climate policy and environmental economics.  Professor Luky Adrianto has been appointed as chair of the Indonesian stakeholder steering committee for Climateworks’ Southeast Asia Framework for Ocean Action in Mitigation (SEAFOAM) project. 

The Government of Indonesia is bringing to life its commitment of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 29 per cent by 2030.

BPKP, Indonesia’s regulator for state-owned enterprises and key public sector agencies, has taken a significant step towards implementing its environmental, social and governance (ESG) plans, by signing a two-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Monash University, Indonesia and Climateworks Centre.

Indonesia, one of the world’s biggest coal producers and greenhouse emitters, plans to launch its pilot emissions trading scheme in July, which can possibly lead to the implementation of the first national carbon market in Southeast Asia.