An Environmental Perspective on Energy Development in Indonesia

Indonesia faces an energy trilemma on the energy security, climate change goals and energy poverty fronts. Policies that focus exclusively on one prong of the trilemma may lead to unacceptable consequences in the others. Conceiving the predicament as a trilemma will encourage a more unified approach to its problem solving. Successful management will require a search for policy complementarities—the likeliest source of which may be the renewable energy sector—that allow the country to move forward on all three fronts. A reform of its bureaucracy to address implementation gaps in its energy policy will also be needed. The reduction in transaction costs associated with the implementation of Indonesia’s energy policy could be used as a broad criterion when considering these necessary changes.