A coal mine in Indonesian Kalimantan in October.
Photographer: Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg
In the Race to Cash in on the Electric-Car Boom, Indonesia Still Relies on Coal
The Southeast Asian nation wants to stoke growth and create millions of jobs by putting itself at the heart of the green-economy supply chain. The dirtiest fossil fuel is smudging that picture.
In a heavily forested district in Indonesia’s portion of the island of Borneo, excavators and an army of surveyors are clearing the way for a $2.6 billion hydroelectric plant, purpose-built to power a vast industrial park — a project lauded by its backers and Jakarta’s government as evidence that economic growth can come with limited carbon cost.
But the reality to support that low-emission ambition lies years in the future.