Mitigating energy poverty: Mobilizing climate finance to manage the energy trilemma in Indonesia

Energy poverty remains a key global challenge. In Indonesia, around 25 million people are still without electricity access, and many of them live in geographically isolated areas and remote places that preclude them from access to the electricity grid. Deploying renewable energy sources in these areas could present an opportunity for a remarkable and rare complementarity between energy security, energy access, and climate change mitigation. This article examines how energy trilemma plays out in mobilizing private climate finance for renewable rural electrification in Indonesia. Analysis of relevant documents combined with interviews at local and national levels reveals that multiple barriers persist constraining the mobilization of private climate finance to support renewable rural electrification in Indonesia. In turn, this has led to difficulties with managing the tensions and reaching the complementarity of the three key energy objectives. The article concludes with some recommendations for moving forward.