JakartaGlobe-Oct 17
Indonesian coal miners are at risk of losing their jobs as the nation shifts towards clean energy, which involves the early closure of coal mines. A recent Global Energy Monitor report estimates that around 30,000 workers in the coal sector could face potential layoffs from 2020 to 2040. In an effort to accelerate its decarbonization program, Indonesia launched the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) on November 15, 2022, during the G-20 Leaders’ Summit in Bali. The JETP is an agreement designed to mobilize an initial $20 billion in public and private financing to decarbonize Indonesia’s energy sector. Part of the JETP funding will be allocated to support the early closure of coal-fired power plants by 2030. Global Energy Monitor estimates that the clean energy transition will result in layoffs of around 30,000 mining workers in Indonesia between 2020 to 2040 decade. “Coal mine closures are inevitable, but economic hardship and social strife for workers is not,” Dorothy Mei, Project Manager for the Global Coal Mine Tracker at Global Energy Monitor, said in a recent statement. Indonesia ranks third in the world in coal production and employs 159,900 coal miners, with nearly 40 percent of them located in East Kalimantan, the province with the most intensive mining activity. The mining sector has expanded across 5 million hectares of East Kalimantan and now constitutes 35 percent of the local GDP. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has identified this province as the most coal-dependent region globally, with coal mining employment comprising 4-8 percent of the workforce. Read more at:
