An international deal to wean Indonesia off coal is “certain” to be scrapped by US President Donald Trump, according to the Southeast Asian country’s climate envoy.
The US will exit the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) with Indonesia, Hashim Djojohadikusumo, Indonesia’s special envoy for climate and energy, said at a forum in Jakarta on Friday.
“I met with a US special envoy who said the program had failed and was not progressing,” Djojohadikusumo, who is also the brother and a key adviser to Indonesia’s president. “Not a single dollar has been disbursed by the US government, it’s all talk.”
His statement is the most dire signal yet for Indonesia’s JETP, which aims to mobilise about US$20 billion ($27.12 billion) in loans and grants from wealthy nations, including the US, to accelerate its shift away from coal.
The plan has made scant progress since being signed in 2022, held back by local red tape and a lack of appetite among international financial institutions to fund early coal plant retirements.
The comments come after Trump signed a raft of presidential actions that included pulling the US out of the Paris climate accord and freezing all foreign assistance.
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Indonesia is the world’s top exporter of coal and relies on it to meet most of its growing power needs. President Prabowo Subianto has signalled greater climate ambitions since taking office in October, including exiting the fossil fuel by the end of the next decade.
Doing so will require Indonesia to turbo-charge its renewables roll-out and shut multiple coal-burning facilities a year, climate consultancy Ember said in a report in December. Those were both key aims of JETP, but so far no deal to retire a plant early has been reached.
Djojohadikusumo said Indonesia would look to other countries like China, Japan and South Korea to help with its climate ambitions.
“Many are keen to invest in solar and geothermal energy,” he said. “We hope to see significant foreign investment coming in.”
