topic: Coal

topic: Coal

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Indonesia civil society groups raise concerns over proposed Borneo nuclear reactor
- Indonesia’s largest environmental advocacy group, Walhi, staged demonstrations in Jakarta and West Kalimantan province to raise awareness about a proposed nuclear power plant in West Kalimantan’s Bengkayang district.
- In 2021, a U.S. agency signed a partnership agreement with Indonesia’s state-owned power utility to explore possibilities for a reactor in the province. Survey work is currently being conducted to determine the project’s viability and safety.
- Some environmental groups have questioned the merit of the plan on safety grounds and the availability of alternative renewable sources.

Hyundai ends aluminum deal with Adaro Minerals following K-pop protest
- The South Korean auto company Hyundai has ended its 2022 agreement for procuring aluminum for its electric vehicles from Adaro Minerals, which plans to build 2.2 gigawatts of coal-fired power plants to power its aluminum smelter.
- The decision follows campaigns coordinated by Kpop4Planet, a climate movement led by K-pop fans who protested Hyundai’s business with Adaro.
- Climate group Market Forces has estimated Adaro’s coal plants would emit 5.2 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year, and activists say Hyundai would be pushed further from reaching its goal of carbon neutrality by 2045.
- The campaign collected more than 11,000 petition signatures from K-pop fans in 68 countries.

Biomass-burning coal plants leave the air even dirtier, Java communities say
- PLTU 1 Indramayu, a 13-year-old coal power complex, has begun adding biomass to the coal it burns on the north coast of West Java province.
- Indonesia’s state electricity firm said its 43 coal units nationwide consumed 1 million metric tons of biomass across in 2023, a 71% increase over 2022, as it seeks ways to trim emissions.
- In Indramayu, local people fear coal plants are endangering public health.

Under the shadow of war in the DRC, a mining company acts with impunity
- In Walikale, a territory located in the eastern DRC, Indigenous Twa people accuse the Canadian and South African-owned mining company Alphamin Bisie Mining SA of obtaining mining rights without consulting all the communities affected by the company’s activities.
- An analysis by Mongabay highlights several inconsistencies in the process of receiving mining and exploration permits that violate the law.
- For years, the Indigenous communities of Banamwesi and Motondo have been unsuccessfully calling on the mining company to recognize that it is occupying part of their community forests. In an exchange with Mongabay, Alphamin Bisie denies they are affected and says they will clarify these matters with the communities.
- In light of the conflict devasting the eastern DRC and government officials’ silence in addressing the communities’ situation, inhabitants and civil society representatives say the conflict is being used as a cover for the violations of the law taking place around them.

Indonesians uprooted by mining industry call for a fairer future amid presidential vote
- Ahead of Indonesia’s presidential election on Feb. 14, people from across the country affected by extractive industries gathered at the site of a notorious mudflow disaster in East Java province.
- The Lapindo mudflow continues to impact thousands of residents with diverse social repercussions, including displacement, environmental pollution, and obstructed access to education and health care.
- The gathering attracted participants from various regions across Indonesia to raise awareness of the impact of mining and extractive industries on affected communities.

Planetary boundary pioneer Johan Rockström awarded 2024 Tyler Prize
- The 2024 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement will go to Johan Rockström who led the team of international researchers who originated the planetary boundary framework in 2009.
- The theory defines a scientifically based “safe operating space for humanity” to safeguard stable Earth conditions established in the Holocene when civilization arose, with the intention of preventing dangerous tipping points in the Anthropocene — a new era in which humanity has the capacity to wreak havoc on Earth systems.
- In a new interview with Mongabay, Rockström discusses how the planetary boundaries framework formulates quantified safe limits to protect nine Earth systems (including climate, biodiversity, freshwater and more), all vital for sustaining life and he shares some updates on this cutting-edge research.
- “Planetary sustainability is a security issue because staying within planetary boundaries gives us stable societies, food security, water security and reduces conflicts,” says Rockström. “Placing planetary boundaries at the UN Security Council positions sustainability, climate, biodiversity, water, where it belongs — in security.”

Indonesian nickel project harms environment and human rights, report says
- A new report highlights land rights violations, deforestation and pollution associated with a massive nickel mining and processing project on the Indonesian island of Halmahera.
- Community members accuse the developers of the Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park (IWIP) of land grabbing and of polluting rivers and the sea.
- The Indonesian government has billed its nickel policy as a push toward clean energy, but mining of the metal has resulted in at least 5,331 hectares (13,173 acres) of deforestation on Halmahera alone.
- The report calls on global automakers sourcing their nickel from IWIP to exert pressure on the miners and smelters to prevent environmental and human rights harms.

Indonesia to offer tax perks to companies investing in reforestation of its new capital city
- The Indonesian government is appealing to the private sector for investors to help transform 82,891 hectares (204,800 acres) of barren lands around the new capital of Nusantara into tropical rainforests.
- Mining companies that are required to rehabilitate their concessions after their permits have expired will be able to count reforestation in the capital region toward their quota.
- In addition, the government is offering significant tax deductions to companies that invest in rehabilitating degraded lands.
- East Kalimantan, once covered in tropical forests and home to charismatic species and vast regions of biodiversity, is the country’s most intensely mined province with 7 million hectares (17.3 million acres) of coal mining concessions.

Indonesian utility PLN ordered to disclose coal plants’ emissions data
- Indonesia’s Public Information Commission (KIP) has ordered state-owned utility PLN to disclose emissions data for some of the country’s biggest coal-fired power plants.
- Civil society groups have hailed the decision as a victory against government opacity and a major step toward accountability for public health.
- The KIP’s decision isn’t the end of the story, however; there’s a long history of various government ministries simply refusing to comply with its orders for data disclosure, and it’s not clear whether PLN will buck that trend.

Reports allege abuses by Glencore in Peru and Colombia, and the banks funding them
- Mining giant Glencore continues to commit serious environmental and human rights violations in its mines in Peru and Colombia despite public promises to respect human rights and the environment, according to three news reports by advocacy organizations.
- The reports document cases of air and water pollution, extensive environmental damage, lack of consultation with communities, and restricting access to land.
- European banks and investors, including Groupe BPCE, HSBC, Abrdn and BNP Paribas, hold the largest investments in Glencore, pumping $44.2 billion into the company between 2016 and 2023.
- Glencore denies the allegations made against it and says it has continued to make progress on its climate targets and remains on track to meet its environmental and human rights commitments.

COP28 ‘breakthrough’ elevates litigation as vital route to climate action
- In the past three decades, the United Nations has sponsored 28 annual climate summits. But that process has failed to provide a legally binding path to significant carbon emission reductions or to the phaseout of fossil fuels responsible for the climate crisis.
- The just concluded COP28 summit, held in Dubai and largely controlled by fossil fuel interests, has pledged “transitioning away from fossil fuels” but that deal is also voluntary. Now, with the world on track for catastrophic global warming, litigation is increasingly being used to force governments to regulate fossil fuels and enforce existing laws.
- Thousands of climate-related lawsuits are underway to reduce emissions, stop drilling or gain compensation for the Indigenous and traditional peoples who are the most vulnerable to climate impacts.
- But despite some court wins for the environment, the litigation process is slow and unlikely to achieve major results in time to staunch fast-moving warming. Even when lawyers do win climate suits, there is no guarantee governments or corporations will obey judicial decisions.

Indonesia pushes carbon-intensive ‘false solutions’ in its energy transition
- Indonesia’s newly revised plan for a $20 billion clean energy transition has come under criticism for offering “false solutions” that would effectively cancel out any gains it promises.
- One of its most controversial proposals is to not count emissions from off-grid coal-fired power plants that supply industrial users without feeding into the grid.
- Emissions from these so-called captive plants alone would exceed any emissions reductions projected under the rest of the Just Energy Transition Partnership.
- The plan also puts a heavy emphasis on “false” renewables solutions such as biomass cofiring and replacing diesel generators with natural gas ones.

Glencore’s coal expansion plans face shareholder and Indigenous opposition
- Swiss-based mining giant Glencore says it plans to challenge the proposed listing of a heritage site, the Ravensworth Homestead, that could deter the planned expansion of its Glendell coal mine.
- Glencore, the largest coal producer in Australia, faces criticism from shareholders for its lack of transparency on how it plans to meet its climate targets, especially in light of proposed thermal coal mine expansions in the country.
- Listing the homestead, which is a culturally significant site for the Indigenous Wonnarua people, is now being reconsidered by heritage officials after a process that sources say has dragged on.
- The Glendell mine is one of several that could increase their emissions under a loophole in the government’s revised “safeguard mechanism” that’s intended to bind the mining sector to a reduction in emissions.

Beyond Climate: Fossil fuels rapidly eroding Earth’s ‘safe operating space’
- This exclusive three-part Mongabay mini-series explores how the oil, natural gas and coal industry are destabilizing nine vital Earth systems, which create a “safe operating space” for humanity and other life on the planet.
- The first story in the series examined some of the direct detrimental impacts of fossil fuels, petroleum-based agrochemicals and petrochemicals (such as plastics) on climate change, biodiversity loss, nitrogen pollution of the world’s oceans and other forms of pollution.
- This story looks at the direct and indirect impacts that hydrocarbon production is having as it destabilizes Earth’s freshwater systems; influences rapid land use change; pollutes air, land and water; potentially contributes to ozone layer decay; and ultimately impacts life on Earth.
- Scientists say humanity’s actions — inclusive of burning fossil fuels and producing petrochemical and agrochemical products — has already pushed Earth into the danger zone, overshooting six of nine critical planetary boundaries. Unless we pull back from these violated thresholds, life as we know it is at risk.

Beyond climate: Oil, gas and coal are destabilizing all 9 planetary boundaries
- It’s well known that the fossil fuel industry made the industrial age possible and raised much of humanity’s living standard, while also causing the current climate crisis. Less known is how oil, gas and coal are destabilizing other vital Earth operating systems — impacting every biome. This is Part 1 of a three-part exclusive Mongabay miniseries.
- Scientists warned this year that, of the nine identified planetary boundaries, humanity has now overshot safe levels for six — climate change, biosphere integrity, land system change, novel entities (pollution), biogeochemical flows of nitrogen and freshwater change.
- Fossil fuels, petroleum-based agrochemicals and petrochemicals (including plastics) are now significantly contributing to the destabilization of all nine planetary boundaries, based on the review of numerous scientific studies and on the views expressed by dozens of researchers interviewed by Mongabay for this article.
- According to multiple experts, if humanity doesn’t find alternative energy sources and phase out fossil fuels, agrochemicals and petrochemicals, then their production will continue driving the climate crisis; polluting the atmosphere, water and land; creating deoxygenated kill zones in the world’s oceans; and poisoning wildlife and people.

World Bank still backs coal in Asia, despite climate claims, report reveals
- A new report shows that the World Bank continues to supply funding to some of Asia’s largest coal developers through its financial intermediaries.
- The multilateral lender committed in 2013 to cease its involvement with coal, and more recently pledged to align its investments with the Paris Agreement.
- The investigation from environmental and economic watchdogs shows that the World Bank’s private lending arm holds stakes in client banks that are funding at least 39 coal developments throughout China, Indonesia and Cambodia.
- The report highlights the case of the planned Jambi 2 development in Sumatra, an “unwanted and unneeded” venture that the report says would severely impact the health, quality of life and livelihoods of affected communities already suffering the impacts of intensive coal development in the area.

Delay of Indonesia’s energy transition plan a chance to get public input
- Observers are calling for greater public participation and transparency in Indonesia’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) deal.
- The JETP investment plan was supposed to be published on Aug. 16, but has been delayed until the end of this year.
- Observers of the energy sector see the delay as an opportunity for the government to involve the public more in the drafting process to ensure justice for all people in the effort to transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy.
- Funding for the $20 billion JETP has been pledged by the G7 group of industrialized nations plus Denmark and Norway.

Experts see red over Indonesia’s planned green investment label for coal plants
- Indonesia’s financial regulator, the OJK, is considering encouraging investments in coal plants that power the metal-processing industry, prompting criticism from energy and finance observers.
- The proposed green label would put these highly polluting plants in the same favorable investment category as renewable energy projects, on the basis that the products they’re helping churn out will be used in batteries and electric vehicles.
- But observers say the plan goes against scientific evidence and will incentivize more new coal plants, keeping the fossil fuel industry alive at a time when Indonesia is supposed to be transitioning to clean energy.
- They also warn that any banks or investment institutions that fund such projects on the back of this green label run the risk of reputational damage.

Indonesian voters want a clean energy plan, but candidates haven’t delivered
- Candidates running in Indonesia’s presidential election next year must make clear their plans for transition the country away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy, policy experts say.
- A survey shows young Indonesians, who make up the majority of potential voters, view environmental issues in general, and a just energy transition in particular, as crucial issues for a new president to tackle.
- However, none of the three hopefuls who have declared their candidacies to date have addressed these issues, with the survey reflecting a sense of pessimism among respondents.
- Indonesia, a top greenhouse gas emitter, has said it aims to hit net-zero emissions by 2060 and retire its existing fleet of coal-fired power plants, but continues to build more coal plants to serve its growing metal-processing sector.

Captive coal-fired power plants hinder Indonesia energy transition deal
- A $20 billion climate financing deal between Indonesia and a group of industrialized nations led by the U.S. and Japan has hit a snag due to captive coal-fired power plants.
- Indonesia was supposed to launch an investment plan on Aug. 16 that underpins the deal, called the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), but the launch was delayed to late 2023 because emissions from captive coal plants that are in the pipeline haven’t been included in the plan.
- Indonesia will use the money from the JETP deal to cap its emissions from the power sector at 290 million metric tons of CO2 by 2030, down from 357 million metric tons of CO2 that are estimated to be released under a business-as-usual scenario.
- When emissions from upcoming captive coal plants are accounted for, the 2030 baseline emissions increased significantly, making it more difficult for Indonesia to hit the target.

South Africa community members decry traditional leaders’ power amid mine plans
- Community members, commercial farmers and environmentalists are raising concerns that Jindal’s proposed $2 billion iron ore mine project, slated to be one of the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, could be allowed to exploit the mineral without community consent — but only with that of their leader.
- Due to the structure of South African law, traditional leaders tend to see themselves as the sole decision-makers in their communities and approve of extractive projects for their stated economic benefits in the region.
- Many communities sit on valuable resources like platinum and titanium, and there is a significant possibility that with the current structure of the law, people will be removed from their lands to make way for extractive industries, say land policy researchers.
- Traditional leaders maintain that it is important for the law to recognize traditional authorities after decades and centuries of fighting for formal recognition after colonization.

Activists slam coal pollution from Indonesia’s production of ‘clean’ batteries
- Indonesia’s electric vehicle ambitions have seen it ramp up refining of nickel, a key component in EV batteries, at industrial estates springing up across the country.
- However, these smelters are powered by purpose-built coal-fired plants, which environmental activists say are causing illness, killing crops and polluting fish farms.
- Among the coal plants that activists say are polluting local villages are those that power the nickel smelters owned by Chinese companies PT Gunbuster Nickel Industry (GNI), PT Virtue Dragon Nickel Industry (VDNI) and PT Obsidian Stainless Steel (OSS).
- While Indonesia has stated its commitment to transitioning away from coal in powering its grid, these industry-exclusive “captive” plants aren’t subject to any kind of phaseout, and are in fact encouraged by regulation.

Jakarta snags ‘most polluted’ title as air quality plunges and officials dither
- Air pollution in Jakarta has hit such dire levels recently that the Indonesian capital has been named the most polluted city on Earth.
- Both the city and national governments blame vehicle emissions for the problem, yet deny that the more than a dozen coal-fired power plants ringing the city are a factor.
- A court in 2021 found the government liable for improving air quality, but the administration of President Joko Widodo chose to appeal rather than comply with the ruling.
- Now, the president himself is reportedly among the more than 630,000 cases of respiratory illness recorded in Jakarta in the first half of this year.

Have coal, will use it: Indonesia’s climate stance raises questions
- Experts have questioned Indonesia’s climate commitments after recent pushback from top officials to calls to speed up the retirement of the country’s coal-fired power plants.
- Indonesia also rejected a target to triple renewable energy capacity, even though the country’s development of renewable energy remains sluggish.
- “If we have coal, then we should use it,” the country’s finance minister said recently, further fueling concerns that the country has little intention of transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Captive to coal: Indonesia to burn even more fossil fuel for green tech
- Indonesia is building several new coal-fired power plants for industrial users, despite its stated commitment to start phasing out coal and transition to clean energy, according to a new report.
- These so-called captive coal plants will have a combined capacity of 13 gigawatts, accounting for more than two-thirds of the 18.8 GW of new coal power in the pipeline.
- Most of the plants will feed the nickel, cobalt and aluminum smelters that the government is promoting in an effort to turn Indonesia into a manufacturing hub for electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries.
- Critics say the building spree goes against both these green technology aspirations and Indonesia’s own climate commitments, but regulatory and funding loopholes mean the government can freely build more new captive coal plants.

Nuclear pioneers press ahead with plans for Indonesia island frontier
- PT ThorCon Power Indonesia is moving closer toward building an experimental nuclear reactor on a remote island in a strait bisecting the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.
- The company says the electricity generated by a thorium-powered reactor could generate electricity at 3 cents per kilowatt hour while emitting close to zero greenhouse gases.
- Some worry the project could threaten delicate marine ecosystems on an island that was, until recently, protected as a conservation area.

Indonesia’s coal burning hits record high — and ‘green’ nickel is largely why
- Indonesia burned 33% more coal in 2022 than the year before, contributing to a 20% increase in the country’s carbon emissions from fossil fuels, an analysis of official data shows.
- This will likely catapult Indonesia to become the world’s sixth-highest fossil CO2 emitter, behind Japan, according to the analysis.
- This rise in coal burning aligns with efforts to boost economic recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic, including the slate of new coal-fired power plants that recently came online as well as the expansion of the nickel industry.
- Industrial parks that are home to smelters processing nickel and other metals consume 15% of the country’s coal power output.

Indonesian coal giant Adaro’s ‘sustainable’ smelter slammed as ‘greenwashing’
- Indonesia’s largest coal miner, Adaro, has been criticized for plans to build coal-fired power plants for a new aluminum smelter, contradicting the company’s claim of a green transition.
- Adaro is marketing the smelter project as a flagship green, renewable development for Indonesia, a move that environmentalists describe as “greenwashing.”
- Adaro is reportedly struggling to secure financing for the project due to the greenwashing allegations as more banks steer clear of fossil fuel projects.
- Adaro has denied the report, saying five banks are committed to funding the project, but hasn’t named them.

South Africa: Little hope in green transition in town with “the dirtiest air in the world”
- The majority of South Africa’s coal production is in the northern province of Mpumalanga, along with 12 of the country’s 15 coal-fired power stations.
- Research carried out in the coal town of Carolina finds women here suffer ill health due to the surrounding mines, as well as sexual harassment and marginalization from formal jobs in the industry.
- Women surveyed for a report nonetheless said they fear for their future if the province’s coal industry is closed down as part of a transition to less-polluting power generation.
- They called for a greater role for women in decision-making, better education about climate change in both classrooms and communities, and for transparency over companies’ green transition plans.

U.S. firm quits Indonesian gasification project in major blow to coal ambitions
- U.S.-based Air Products and Chemicals confirmed in late March that it had withdrawn from all of its projects in Indonesia, including coal-gasification plants in East Kalimantan and South Sumatra provinces.
- The Indonesian government has looked to coal gasification to create market demand for downstream coal, but analysts warn such projects are unlikely to be financially viable, especially as major global investors turn away from coal.
- The Indonesian government says the gasification projects will continue, possibly with investors from China, but no details have been released.

‘Impact assessments need a shake-up’: Q&A with Georgine Kengne & Morgan Hauptfleisch
- Environmental and social impact assessments as they’re implemented in development projects across Africa need a “shake-up” to ensure they’re fit for purpose, experts say.
- Georgine Kengne, from the WoMin African Alliance, says the ideal ESIA process would be one in which “the government and the mining company are not just colluding to make profits.”
- Morgan Hauptfleisch, a professor of nature conservation in Namibia, says the fundamental problem is that ESIAs and other safeguards can simply be ignored with little consequence other than fines that the companies just budget for anyway.
- Mongabay spoke with both Kengne and Hauptfleisch about ESIAs, community participation, and the underused tool that is the strategic environmental assessment (SEA).

Indonesia aims to use gas in foreign-funded energy transition; critics cry foul
- Indonesia plans to convert its diesel fuel-fired power plants to gas-fired power plants starting this year as a part of its energy transition program.
- The Indonesian government hopes the gas conversion project could be funded by a US$20 billion energy transition deal with developed countries called the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP).
- The plan has been lambasted by activists, who see the gas conversion project as a false solution to climate change due to methane emissions that come from leakage during the transportation of gas.
- Activists also point out that gas is more costly than renewable energy and the development of gas could take away funding and resources from renewable development.

Element Africa: Claims of mining encroachment in DRC and broken promises in SA
- Activists say Canada-registered miner Alphamin Bisie has been operating outside its concession in the DRC’s North Kivu province, and encroaching into community forests.
- Police in South Africa have arrested seven activists protesting against Anglo American Platinum for what they say is the mining giant’s failure to report back on its social and work commitments to the mining-affected community.
- Element Africa is Mongabay’s bi-weekly bulletin rounding up brief stories from the commodities industry in Africa.

Climate damage from Bitcoin mining grew more than 125 times worse in just five years
- The negative climate impacts of mining the cryptocurrency Bitcoin have grown rapidly over time, with carbon emissions per coin multiplying 126 times from 2016 to 2021.
- During that window, the climate damage of mining one Bitcoin averaged 35% of a coin’s value, similar to the environmental costs of unsustainable products like crude oil and beef.
- Reducing Bitcoin’s massive carbon footprint may require international regulation unless the cryptocurrency shifts to a more energy-efficient mining system.

In South Africa, a community says no after a coal miner said go
- A South African court has ordered one of the country’s largest coal mines to redo an environmental impact assessment for expanding its footprint by nearly 18 square kilometers (7 square miles).
- The court agreed with residents of Somkhele who said that the pre-2016 public participation process to expand the mine — and extend its productive life — was seriously flawed.
- Communities around the mine are deeply divided; the traditional authority and some residents support its extension and the jobs and income this would provide, while others stand firm against the destruction of their homes and way of life.
- The new EIA process is allowing community members to raise a range of concerns about the mine’s social and environmental impacts.

‘I have anger every day’: South African villagers on the mine in their midst
- Rural families removed from their homes in Somkhele, in northern KwaZulu-Natal province, to make way for a giant coal mine are suffering from collective trauma, a new report has found.
- A psychologist evaluated members of 26 of the 220 families displaced and found alarming levels of clinical depression and suicidal feelings.
- He found they had been traumatized by witnessing the exhumation of family graveyards as well as the loss of both income and cultural space provided by cattle encosures.
- The report, commissioned by a law firm representing opponents of the mine, recommends that the mine rehabilitate polluted land and water resources and make greater financial compensation available to allow families who wish to leave to reestablish themselves elsewhere.

Indonesia to build coal plants despite $20b deal on clean energy transition
- The Indonesian government will still permit the construction of new coal-fired power plants, despite recently signing a $20 billion energy transition financing deal with industrialized countries.
- The plants are accommodated in the government’s 10-year energy plan and covered by a presidential regulation.
- The newly announced Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), by contrast, doesn’t make clear what restrictions, if any, it puts in place on Indonesia building new coal plants.
- Activists have called for a complete ban on new coal power so that a just energy transition can happen as envisioned in the new climate finance partnership.

Indonesia seals $20 billion deal with G7 to speed up clean energy transition
- Indonesia and the G7 have agreed on a $20 billion financing deal that will help the Southeast Asian nation speed up its transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
- The Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) was announced at the G20 summit being hosted in Indonesia this week, with the funding to come in the form of grants, concessional loans, market-rate loans, guarantees, and private investments.
- The funding will come from both public and private financing, with details of the investment plan to be ironed out in the next six months.
- Under the partnership, Indonesia will aim to cap its emissions from the power sector by 2030, faster than the initial target of 2037, and to generate 34% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.

Early retirement for Indonesian coal plants could cut CO2, boost jobs, analysis says
- At a cost of $37 billion, Indonesia could retire its coal power plants as early as 2040 and reap economic, social and environmental benefits from the shift, a new analysis by nonprofit TransitionZero shows.
- Replacing coal with renewables will create a windfall of new jobs, which would outweigh coal closure job losses by six to one, according to the analysis.
- The analysis has also identified three coal plants in Indonesia that are the most suitable for early retirement, as they have lower abatement costs and are the most polluting.

Southern Philippine coal project moves ahead despite community opposition
- Heavy machinery has begun operating at a coal mining site on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.
- The concession is held by three subsidiaries of Philippine conglomerate San Miguel Corp., which estimates the mine will produce 180 million metric tons of coal and plans to build a mine-mouth power plant.
- The project has been opposed by environment activists, the local Catholic Church and some tribal groups, who say it threatens the environment, food and water security and will displace Indigenous people in the area.
- Opponents of the project also say that San Miguel’s plans to strip mine run afoul of a provincial ban on open-pit mining.

Thailand bets on coal despite long losing streak for communities
- Despite its declaration of ambitious emissions reductions targets, Thailand is on track to build four new coal-fired power generators by 2034.
- Two of the generators will add to an existing plant in Mae Moh, which is powered by coal from an adjacent mine.
- Residents say the Mae Moh power station and mine have caused illness and pollution, with the country’s Supreme Court ruling in their favor in 2015 and ordering the state-owned utility to pay compensation.
- Two other generators are planned for as-yet-unnamed locations in the country’s east and south.

Indonesian banks prop up coal industry increasingly shunned by outside lenders
- Indonesia’s largest banks channeled a combined $3.5 billion of direct loans to the coal industry from 2015 to 2021, despite pledging to implement sustainable financial practices.
- Experts say these four banks — BNI, BRI and Bank Mandiri, which are state-owned lenders, and BCA, the most valuable company in the country — lag behind banks elsewhere when it comes to their climate commitments.
- No Indonesian banks have joined the U.N.’s Net-Zero Banking Alliance, whose members have committed to transition all of their investments that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions in order to reach net zero by 2050.

Emissions and deforestation set to spike under Indonesia’s biomass transition
- Indonesia’s cofiring program — reducing the amount of coal used in power generation by cutting it with wood pellets — will result in massive deforestation and a net emissions surge, an energy policy think tank warns.
- Under the government’s 10% biomass cofiring plan, up to 1.05 million hectares (2.59 million acres) of forest could be cleared for acacia and eucalyptus plantations to provide wood pellets.
- This would result in up to 489 million metric tons of emissions — a vastly greater amount than the 1 million tons in reduced emissions that cofiring is expected to achieve.
- The analysis, by Trend Asia, also shows that, if anything, Indonesia’s coal consumption has only increased with higher biomass cofiring, and that this trend is expected to continue through 2030 as more new coal plants are built.

Biomass cofiring loopholes put coal on open-ended life support in Asia
- Over the past 10 years, some of Asia’s coal-dependent, high-emitting nations have turned to biomass cofiring (burning coal and biomass together to make electricity) to reduce CO2 emissions on paper and reach energy targets. But biomass still generates high levels of CO2 at the smokestack and adds to dangerous global warming.
- In South Korea, renewable energy credits given for biomass cofiring flooded the market and made other renewables like wind and solar less profitable. Although subsides for imported biomass for cofiring have decreased in recent years, increased domestic biomass production is likely to continue fueling cofiring projects.
- In Japan, renewable energy subsidies initially prompted the construction of new cofired power plants. Currently, biomass cofiring is used to make coal plants seem less polluting in the near term as utilities prepare to cofire and eventually convert the nation’s coal fleet to ammonia, another “carbon-neutral” fuel.
- In Indonesia, the government and state utility, encouraged by Japanese industry actors, plan to implement cofiring at 52 coal plants across the country by 2025. The initiative will require “nothing less than the creation of a large-scale biomass [production] industry,” according to experts.

Australian miner threatens lawsuit against PNG for scrapping carbon scheme
- Australian mining and energy firm Mayur Resources announced in July that it would scrap plans to build a planned coal-fired power plant in Papua New Guinea, instead focusing on carbon offset projects in the country.
- Soon after, PNG authorities issued a public notice saying Mayur’s carbon offset project was canceled because of breaches of the country’s forestry laws.
- Mayur is now threatening to sue the PNG government for canceling the carbon scheme.

Building Indonesia’s ‘green’ new capital could see coal use surge (analysis)
- Indonesia is planning to construct a new capital city, known as Nusantara, in the Bornean province of East Kalimantan.
- Authorities promote Nusantara as a “green city,” but discussions of the city’s carbon footprint overlook key factors, notably the use of coal to manufacture the building materials required to construct a completely new city.
- With the new city being built in the country’s coal-mining heartland, coal is the most likely energy source for such manufacturing, putting Indonesia’s emissions reduction targets at risk, as well as casting doubt on the green commitments of funders like Japan and China.

For residents of Jakarta’s port district, coal is the neighbor no one wants
- Residents, officials and experts blame dust from a coal storage facility in Jakarta’s port district for a spate of health problems in a neighboring community.
- Children in Marunda ward have been hit particularly hard, suffering from eye and skin problems and respiratory infections, in a city already notorious for its dirty air.
- City authorities inspecting the facility run by KCN, a public-private joint venture, have found several violations and revoked the company’s environmental permit.
- While KCN has offered to provide residents with free medical checkups, it has not acknowledged a link between its operation and residents’ health problems.

Worries and whispers in Vietnam’s NGO community after activist’s sentencing
- On June 17, a Hanoi court sentenced Nguy Thi Khanh, arguably Vietnam’s best-known environmental advocate, to two years in jail for tax evasion.
- Vietnam’s foreign ministry has refuted claims that Khanh’s arrest and sentencing were linked to her anti-coal advocacy, but the move against her has sent a chill through NGOs in the country.
- Activists say Khanh’s imprisonment is a step back for climate change action in Vietnam, and casts doubts on the government’s commitment to reduce emissions and move toward a green development strategy.

As Jakarta chokes on toxic air, Indonesian government stalls on taking action
- Jakarta’s air pollution has been worsening recently, with the Indonesian capital routinely ranked top of the list of the world’s most polluted major cities.
- Much of the pollution is generated outside the city, in the industrial estates and coal-fired power plants in neighboring provinces, but there’s been no effort by the national government to coordinate action on this transboundary pollution.
- Activists say the national government hasn’t done much at all to address the problem, instead opting to appeal against a court ruling ordering it to tackle the air pollution.

Planned coal plants fizzle as Japan ends financing in Indonesia, Bangladesh
- Two planned coal-fired power plants, one in Indonesia and the other in Bangladesh, have had their funding withdrawn by the Japanese government, as part of Tokyo’s decision to no longer bankroll coal projects in either country.
- Officials in both countries have already confirmed that neither project — a new installation in Bangladesh and an expansion of an existing plant in Indonesia — will be going ahead.
- For Indonesia in particular, the move also means the loss of the top three foreign funders of coal plants in the country, after similar decisions by China and South Korea; the three East Asian countries account for 95% of foreign funding of coal plants in Indonesia since 2013.
- Activists have welcomed Japan’s announcement, including communities living near the existing plant in Indonesia, who have reported health problems and loss of livelihoods as a result of pollution from the plant.

We’re winning with climate activism, ‘just not fast enough,’ says Goldman Prize winner Julien Vincent (commentary)
- 2022 Goldman Environmental Prize winner Julien Vincent shares his thoughts on the power of people to make change, even against the most entrenched of forces like climate change denialism.
- “From my vantage point in such a wealthy and privileged part of the world, I get frustrated by in-activism…But I remind myself that it’s in the interests of our opponents to keep the public in a state of apathy, confusion and disempowerment.”
- “There is one thing I want to impart more than anything: the power people have to create change is mind-blowing, and that power is our greatest asset,” he writes in a new op-ed.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Coal mining threatens Ethiopia’s ancient coffee forest
- The Yayu forest in southwestern Ethiopia is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and one of the world’s only remaining ecosystems in which genetically diverse varietals of arabica coffee grow wild.
- The forest also sits atop a massive deposit of coal, estimated to be enough to meet Ethiopia’s domestic coal demand for 40 years.
- With Ethiopia’s government looking to boost the country’s mining industry, a shuttered mining venture in the forest’s buffer zone is set to be revived.
- Coffee farmers who have carefully managed and protected the forest for generations say a shift to mining will completely change their society, the local economy, and the environment.

In Indonesian Borneo, a succession of extractive industries multiplies impacts, social fractures
- Much of the landscape of Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province has been transformed, its formerly vast forests razed for logging, monocrop agriculture and open-cast coal mining.
- A recently published study analyzes how waves of extractive industries have affected the inhabitants of one village in the province
- The cumulative impacts of these industries were found to be severe, but also to vary depending on multiple factors including ethnicity, gender, wealth and age. Women, young people and recently arrived migrants were found to be disproportionately affected.

Opaque infrastructure project ‘a death sentence’ for Cambodia’s Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary
- In November 2021, the Cambodian government approved the development of 299 kilometers (186 miles) of 500-kilovolt power lines through Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary by Schneitec Northern to link Phnom Penh’s electrical grid to two coal-fired power plants in Laos, following a power purchase agreement signed in October 2019. The power lines are planned to transect the largest tract of lowland evergreen forest remaining in Southeast Asia, and critics say the project puts at risk at risk one of the country’s largest carbon stocks as well as poses a threat to Prey Lang’s Indigenous residents and two watersheds vital to Tonle Sap Lake, which sustains millions of Cambodians.
- Leaked documents from April 2021 show that the consulting firm that conducted the environmental impact assessment had suggested three possible routes for Schneitec’s power lines, with two alternative routes that skirted the already-deforested eastern and western edges of the protected area respectively. Industry experts have suggested that building power lines through forested terrain can cost between 1.5 and three times as much as through scrubland or flat terrain.
- The power line plans come as satellite data reveal 2021 was the worst year on record for deforestation in Prey Lang and international institutions condemn widespread illegal logging in the protected area.
- This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network where Gerald Flynn is a fellow

Indigenous community mounts legal challenge to Thai coal mine development
- Villagers in northern Thailand have filed a lawsuit against authorities who approved an allegedly faulty environmental impact assessment for a coal mine project that they say would destroy farmland, divert watercourses, and affect long-term human health.
- The project has been in the planning pipeline for two decades, but only became public in 2019; the Indigenous Karen community in Kabeudin village has opposed the coal mining project ever since.
- The lawsuit alleges the 10-year-old EIA was conducted and approved with virtually no participation from potentially impacted communities and omitted crucial information about the environment and the natural resources on which the community depends.
- Observers say the case is an example of the rural population’s growing awareness of their rights and of legal processes that hold companies and government departments accountable to the law and to climate commitments.

Saving medicinal plants a village cause in Indonesia
- Residents of the Sumatran village of Muara Jambi are working to preserve their ancient practice of cultivating and using medicinal plants.
- The village is also home to an ancient Buddhist temple complex that may be linked to the medicinal plant tradition, but some fear government plans to restore the site could threaten the plants growing there.
- Other threats come from oil palm plantations and coal mines operating nearby.

‘The wheels came off’: South Africa court nixes coal mine extension
- A South African judge has declared a 2016 decision to allow one of the country’s largest coal mines to expand invalid, saying it failed to secure consent from affected communities.
- The country’s minister for mineral resources and energy will now have to review an appeal by some community members against the expansion — jeopardizing the mine’s expansion.
- The mine’s operation has divided the community, with tensions remaining high after houses of local residents who oppose the mine were burnt down earlier this year.

Banks bet big on coal in Indonesia, bucking global shift away from fossil fuel
- Loans from banks and leasing firms to coal-mining companies in Indonesia are increasing on the back of soaring global coal prices.
- Analysts say financial institutions are capitalizing on the high demand for capital from miners, effectively helping keep the fossil fuel industry afloat.
- The increase in lending to coal miners in Indonesia bucks a global trend that has seen financial institutions and investors increasingly avoid coal and other fossil fuel industries because of their environmental and climate impacts.
- Energy policy experts say that besides risking reputational damage, the banks financing Indonesia’s current coal boom could be left holding a lot of bad debt once the cycle inevitably turns into a bust.

Coal miner Bayan sues Indonesian investment chief over loss of land
- Indonesian coal miner Bayan Resources is suing Indonesia’s investment board head over a decision to revoke its permits.
- The revocation effectively reduces by 16% the total area of concessions held by five Bayan subsidiaries in Borneo.
- The move reflects the latest ruling in a long-running dispute between Bayan and another coal miner, PT Senyiur Sukses Pratama (SSP), over parts of their respective concessions that overlap.
- The revocation was announced as part of a sweeping series of permit revocations ordered by President Joko Widodo in January to retake land from companies that the government says have failed to exploit them to the utmost.

Mine pits expose the holes in Indonesia’s plan to relocate its capital
- Critics of the Indonesian government’s plan to build a new capital city in the coal-mining heartland of East Kalimantan province have long warned about the abandoned mining pits dotting the landscape.
- The government has now acknowledged that these will be a problem: it says it has identified 2,415 of these pits at the site of the new city, covering a combined area of 29,000 hectares (71,700 acres).
- It also says it’s been working to rehabilitate these decommissioned mines since 2021 — a revelation that has raised concerns that the public is paying for work that, by law, should be done by the coal companies.
- The government’s solutions for dealing with the rainwater-filled pits have also been panned, such as using them as sources of fresh water for the new city, despite the fact that the water is as acidic as stomach acid.

Sluggish growth of renewables threatens Bangladesh’s clean-energy goals
- The development of renewable energy in Bangladesh continues to be outpaced by non-renewables such as coal, gas and nuclear.
- This threatens the country’s ability to meet both its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris Agreement, and its goal under the U.N. SDGs of ensuring that at least 10% of energy consumption by 2030 comes from renewable sources.
- Renewables today account for just 2% of the power flowing into the grid, or 3.49% of total consumption if off-grid sources are included.
- While the country is embarking on a spate of renewable energy projects, including one solar and four wind farms, these are overshadowed by the seven coal plants, 13 gas plants, and one — possibly two — nuclear plants in the works.

Stranded coal barge spills cargo, disrupts fishery in Indonesian waters
- An Indonesian coal barge that ran aground off East Java has reportedly spilled much of its cargo and disrupted the local fishery.
- Local fishers blame the spill for turning the water in the area dark and affecting their fishing activities.
- An environmental group has called for an investigation by fisheries and environmental agencies into the incident.
- Indonesia is one of the world’s biggest producers of coal, but has paid a heavy price for that standing, including the massive deforestation wrought to mine the fossil fuel, as well as the numerous environmental and safety incidents associated with transporting and burning it.

Indonesia’s gasification plans could be costly for budget and environment
- Indonesia has broken ground on a $2.1 billion coal gasification plant, and plans to build 10 more.
- In supporting coal gasification, Indonesian officials aim to bolster coal production even if export demand diminishes.
- A new analysis by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis concludes that coal gasification will require massive government subsidies to be commercially viable in Indonesia.
- Advocates for renewable energy say any funds that might be used to support coal gasification would be better spent on supporting renewable energy projects.

Indonesian bill turns coal-derived fuels clean by ignoring true scale of emissions
- A bill being considered by Indonesia’s parliament defines fuels derived from coal as being “new energy” with “minimal” carbon emissions.
- Energy experts have slammed this dissonance, pointing out that producing and burning gasified coal, for example, emits more emissions than simply burning the solid coal for the same amount of energy.
- The bill also calls for the adoption of costly and largely unproven technologies to help coal-fired power plants run “cleaner,” including carbon capture and storage.
- But experts say it would be far more cost-effective to invest in truly renewable energy, and call into question Indonesia’s commitment at last year’s climate summit to phase out coal from its energy mix.

Analysis: Elite power struggle sees Vietnam abandon coal, but leaves collateral damage
- Vietnam’s energy establishment attempted last year to flout top-level instructions to undo the nation’s growing dependence on coal and other fossil fuels.
- However, after more than a decade of failures by bureaucrats and managers to deliver clean energy and clean air, there is broad sentiment for maximal exploitation of Vietnam’s plentiful endowment of wind and sunshine.
- At COP26, the prime minister left no doubt which way the nation is headed: Vietnam, he pledged, will be carbon neutral by 2050.
- But the recent developments have also seen a leading advocate for the clean energy transition jailed after publishing a letter warning of the risks of clinging to coal.

Indonesia’s clean energy transition must start with clean rivers (commentary)
- Indonesian President Joko Widodo has touted hydropower as key to the country’s transition away from coal, which currently dominates the national energy mix.
- But while Indonesia has a wealth of major rivers with the potential to high power-generating capacity, more than half are degraded and polluted.
- With Indonesia set to showcase its clean energy transition when it hosts the G20 summit later this year, this is the time to start cleaning up the country’s rivers, writes Warief Djajanto Basorie.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

As blackouts loom, Indonesia’s energy crisis highlights its addiction to coal
- Coal miners in Indonesia have been shirking their obligation to allocate 25% of their output for the domestic market, leading to a critical shortage of the fossil fuel for power generation.
- That’s prompted the government to impose a ban on coal exports throughout January, but energy policy experts say this doesn’t address the root of the problem: Indonesia’s overreliance on coal in its energy mix.
- They say the energy crunch, the fifth in 15 years, should ring alarm bells about the need to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy.
- They point out that years of coddling the coal industry have led to the current situation, and that there’s no real sense of urgency about moving away from coal.

China’s pivot from funding coal plants to gasification slammed as more of the same
- China has promised to stop funding new coal-fired power plants abroad, but appears intent on investing in other coal projects, including gasification plants in Indonesia.
- A state-owned Chinese company announced in October that it would build a $560 million gasification plant in Indonesia’s Aceh province, turning the fossil fuel into methanol.
- Energy experts warn that this pivot away from coal-fired power plants to gasification plants “may be a loophole in the commitment to ending coal financing.”
- At the same time Indonesian President Joko Widodo has promised billions of dollars of support for gasification while also seeking foreign investment to expand the industry.

Indonesia’s new plan for coal: It pollutes land and air, so why not the sea too?
- Environmental activists have lambasted a plan by the Indonesian government to use bricks made from coal ash as building blocks for coral transplant projects.
- The plan is a follow-up to another controversial policy, issued earlier this year, to declare that the ash from burning coal in power plants is non-hazardous waste, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.
- That delisting was done at the behest of various industry groups, including the coal miners’ association, which have lobbied to be allowed to sell their mounting piles of coal ash to the construction industry.
- Under the new agreement, the fisheries ministry will buy the coal ash bricks from the operator of Indonesia’s biggest coal-fired power plant — which in 2019 funded a study claiming that coal ash bricks are “feasible” for coral transplantation.

‘Standing with your feet in the water’: COP26 struggles to succeed
- As at every COP before it, negotiators at COP26 are struggling against time to reach an accord, with negotiators at Glasgow clashing over seemingly irreconcilable differences. With the science of climate change now dire, vulnerable nations are demanding strong specific language, while other nations seek to water it down.
- The group of nations dubbed the “Carbon Club” as long ago as the Kyoto Agreement negotiations in the 1990s, continues to offer the primary stumbling block. Those oil and/or coal producing nations include Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, Australia, Norway, the U.K. and often the U.S.
- The United States, while it has made a major sea change since the denialism of the Trump administration, continues to be cautious about any language that would threaten oil, gas and coal industry subsidies, or antagonize Republican members of Congress or coal company baron and West Virginia Dem. Sen. Joe Manchin.
- As the clock ticks, and the last hours of COP26 slip away, with street protestors increasingly frustrated at the lack of significant movement by the negotiators, the scene remains tense in Glasgow. With the summit now gone into overtime, the outcome of COP26 remains in the balance.

Legal challenge to South Africa mine expansion looks to set new landmark
- In 2016, South Africa’s minister of minerals and energy granted one of the country’s largest anthracite coal mines the right to expand and resettle 143 families.
- The decision was challenged by a local organization that filed an application against the minister, the Department of Minerals and Energy, the mining company, and others.
- If the case is won, it would be a landmark for communities affected by mining activities across the country, as the government, traditional authorities and unions have shown support for the mine.

COP26: E.U. is committed to forest biomass burning to cut fossil fuel use
- At COP26, Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s executive vice president, made clear that the E.U. is committed to ending its addiction to oil, gas and coal, but only if it can use the bridge of burning forest biomass to get to an eventual goal of fully utilizing truly renewable energy sources, like wind and solar.
- Timmermans maintains that the E.U. is committed to only burning “the right kind of biomass: You can collect dead wood, you can collect those elements of the forests that are no longer alive, fallen down, etc. That constitutes a serious amount of biomass.… As long as your definition is sustainable… we can work with biomass.”
- A forestry industry representative agrees: “The biomass we are currently using in Europe is about 95% based on local resources — that is residues from forestry and wood processing originating from Europe… We are currently harvesting significantly less than is regrowing annually in Europe.”
- But critics say whole trees are being burned to make wood pellets and ask how the E.U. can commit to both biomass burning and protecting carbon-storing forests. “No amount of allegedly nicer forest management can overcome the basic problem of large, immediate emissions from burning tons of biomass daily,” said one activist.

COP26 cop-out? Indonesia’s clean energy pledge keeps coal front and center
- In an effort to phase out its coal-fired power plants by the 2040s, as part of a pledge signed at the COP26 climate summit, Indonesia plans to start with decommissioning a quarter of its coal capacity by 2030.
- While some have welcomed the move, others note that Indonesia’s commitment is so riddled with caveats that it makes the effort essentially “useless” — in particular the fact that the country is on track to add more coal capacity by 2030 than it plans to retire.
- The government of President Joko Widodo is also betting big on giving the coal industry a second life through coal gasification, a process that yields a cleaner-burning fuel, but which, in producing it, is even more carbon-intensive than just burning coal.
- Other measures the government is rolling out to keep coal plants burning longer include co-firing, where wood pellets are burned alongside coal, and the use of carbon capture technology criticized as unfeasible at scale.

Indonesia’s ‘green’ electricity plan undermines its climate vows, activists say
- Indonesia has published its new 10-year electricity generation plan that it claims is “green” but that still calls for a large portion of the country’s energy mix to come from coal
- Clean energy activists say the plan threatens to undermine Indonesia’s emissions reduction efforts, including a goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.
- The new plan calls for adding 40.8 gigawatts of new electricity by 2030, including half from renewable energy and a third from coal.
- Even then, the government’s definition of “renewable” includes questionable sources such as biomass (burning wood pellets), gasified coal, and nuclear.

Plastics set to overtake coal plants on U.S. carbon emissions, new study shows
- A new report released by Beyond Plastics suggests that plastics will release more greenhouse gas emissions than coal plants in the U.S. by 2030.
- It argues that plastics production in the U.S. is currently responsible for 232 million metric tons of greenhouse gases every year, the equivalent of 116.5 gigawatts of coal plants. These numbers are likely to increase as production expands.
- However, experts say that policymakers do not currently account for the impact plastics currently have on climate change and that the issue is flying under the radar.

Opposition to South Africa coal mine persists a year after murder of activist
- One year after the murder of South African anti-coal mining activist Fikile Ntshangase, no arrests have been made.
- A legal application to prevent the expansion of the Somkhele coal mine, which Ntshangase strongly opposed, has again been postponed by a South African court.
- Tensions within the communities remain high as the mining company is pushing residents to sign relocation agreements before its existing reserves are depleted in 2022.

Build around the forest, not through it, study says of Sumatra trucking road
- Researchers have identified alternative routes for a planned mining road that will cut through the Harapan forest, the largest surviving tract of lowland tropical rainforest on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
- The alternative routes will avoid thousands of hectares of forest loss as they skirt the main forest block while traversing nearby lands that are largely deforested.
- They are also potentially cheaper than the routes planned by coal miner PT Marga Bara Jaya (MBJ) because they utilize existing road networks and improve them.
- Local environmental activists have identified similar alternative routes, but the fact that the company is proposing a more destructive path points to a lack of will to minimize deforestation, poor planning, or a deliberate attempt to cut through the middle of the forest, researchers say.

Links to coal mining add to Indonesian palm oil sector’s risk for buyers
- Six of the top 10 palm oil conglomerates in Indonesia have coal mining businesses, and five of the top 10 coal miners have oil palm businesses, a new report shows.
- This substantial overlap means that consumer goods giants like Nestlé and PepsiCo that buy palm oil from Indonesia are potentially exposed to mining risk too, including deforestation and pollution.
- While most of the palm oil companies have zero-deforestation policies and sustainability commitments, the affiliated mining companies aren’t scrutinized as closely and have often been associated with environmental degradation, human rights abuses, and worsening climate change.
- The report authors say this poses reputational and financial risks for the consumer goods companies that buy from the palm oil firms, and for the banks and investors that fund them.

Jakarta court finds president, governor liable for city’s air pollution woes
- An Indonesian court has found seven top government officials, including President Joko Widodo, liable for the poor air quality in the country’s capital, Jakarta.
- The judges order the government to carry out serious actions to improve air quality in Jakarta and ensure the rights of citizens to clean and healthy air.
- Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan, one of the respondents in the citizen lawsuit, said he won’t challenge the ruling, after initially refusing to take full accountability for the city’s persistent pollution problem.

Indonesia still clinging to coal despite phaseout pledge, new plan shows
- The Indonesian government has walked back an earlier pledge to phase out all coal-fired power plants, saying now that it will keep them running but fit them with carbon capture technology.
- Experts have questioned the technical and financial feasibility of the plan, and called for a swift transition away from the fossil fuel and toward renewable energy.
- Even so, senior officials and lawmakers have criticized any attempt to give up coal, saying Indonesia shouldn’t blindly follow the growing global trend toward renewables.
- As part of its plan for “cleaner” coal plants, the government wants to burn more biomass — wood chips — alongside coal, which raises a host of new questions about economic and environmental costs.

Indonesia’s coal phaseout is just more business as usual, report says
- Indonesia’s coal phaseout plan is nowhere near as progressive as the government makes it out to be, according to a new report by a think tank.
- It notes that no coal-fired power plants are actually being decommissioned early, with all plants planned to operate until their contracts expire.
- The earliest plants to be retired, in 2030, will have been in service for 50 to 60 years by then; by industry standards, their decommissioning will have been long overdue.
- The report also identifies at least 44 new coal plants with total capacity of nearly 16 GW that are expected to come online between 2021 and 2030.

Ethnic communities in Myanmar opposing a coal plant see their fight get harder
- In Myanmar’s ethnic areas, Indigenous people have faced the loss of their lands, community forests, and deteriorating health conditions.
- In Tigyit in Shan state, Indigenous communities have never seen any compensation for land confiscated on the order of the ruling generals two decades ago to build a coal-fired power plant and nearby coal mine.
- Reforestation plans, although welcomed by the Indigenous people, have not proved to be successful, as the mine continues to expand.
- In the face of the political crisis unleashed through the military power grab of February 2021, civil society organizations have become fearful of arrests over their environmental activism.

Activists take Indonesia’s mining law to court, but don’t expect much
- Activists have filed suit to revoke what they say are problematic articles from a controversial mining law that has been criticized as pandering to mining companies at the expense of the environment and local communities.
- Among the stipulations the plaintiffs are seeking to have annulled are the centralization of the mining authority with the national government rather than local authorities; and criminal charges for disruptive protests against mining activity.
- Another controversial issue in the law is guaranteed contract renewals for coal miners, along with bigger concessions and reduced environmental obligations.
- The plaintiffs say they’re not optimistic about the court approving their lawsuit, citing the government’s recent gifting of civilian honors, longer terms and an extended retirement age for the six Constitutional Court justices hearing the case.

Coal phase-out plan gets pushback in power-hungry Indonesia
- Officials and industry in Indonesia have questioned a plan by the national utility to phase out all coal-fired power plants, while clean energy advocates have welcomed the proposal.
- The main objections to the plan include the high cost of prematurely retiring coal-fired power plants that haven’t achieved a return on investment, and the persistently high price of renewable energy compared to coal in Indonesia.
- Supporters of the plan say it’s not just economically feasible, but over the long term would work out cheaper than maintaining coal plants, while creating millions of jobs in the renewable energy sector.
- A glaring inconsistency in the plan, however, is that the utility is at the same time also planning to bring 117 under-construction and planned coal-fired power plants online, negating any notion of a “phase-out.”

Indonesia to retire coal-fired power plants while also adding more
- Indonesia’s state-owned utility says it will start shutting down coal-fired power plants and phase them all out by 2055, amounting to 50 gigawatts of capacity.
- At the same time, it’s building 21 GW of new coal plants that will have an operating life until 2065 — a contradiction that activists say undermines the coal phase-out plan.
- The mixed message is the latest from a government that still doesn’t have a unified policy on a clean energy transition, and which continues to lavish generous subsidies and incentives on coal miners and power plant operators.
- Energy policy experts say the president needs to publicly weigh in on the issue, including declaring a deadline for Indonesia to achieve net-zero carbon emissions.

Mining linked yet again to another severe flood in Indonesian Borneo
- Recent floods that hit the eastern part of Indonesia Borneo may have been exacerbated by massive deforestation for coal mines.
- There are as many as 94 coal-mining concessions in Berau district, which was hit by floodwaters as high as 2 meters (6.5 feet).
- Twenty of the concessions are located along the two rivers that overflowed during the floods.
- Illegal mining is also rampant in the area, and the police have launched an investigation to identify whether mining was a factor in exacerbating the scale of the flooding.

Indonesian president slammed for ‘wait-and-see’ approach on climate action
- During last month’s climate summit of world leaders, top emitters announced more ambitious climate targets in a bid to combat climate change.
- Missing from that list was Indonesia, whose president, Joko Widodo, instead called on industrialized countries to set an example for other nations to follow.
- Climate and policy experts in Indonesia say his failure to announce a bold target for achieving net-zero emissions is a missed opportunity for Indonesia to show global leadership based on its success in reducing deforestation.
- They also criticized a government proposal, not yet officially endorsed by the president, to achieve carbon neutrality by 2070 — 20 years later than most other major emitters.

Indonesia says no new coal plants from 2023 (after the next 100 or so)
- Indonesia plans to stop building new coal-fired plants after 2023, with additional electrical capacity to be generated only from new and renewable sources.
- Development experts and the private sector have welcomed the plan, but some say it’s not ambitious enough since it still entails construction of new coal plants that have already been signed.
- Once these plants are built, they will operate for decades to come, and their emissions will spell disaster for climate change.
- There’s also controversy over what the government considers “new and renewable” energy, in which it lumps solar and wind alongside biomass, nuclear, and gasified coal.

ADB declares coal exit in Asia Pacific, but gas remains in play
- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) plans to exit financing coal, oil and natural gas exploration and extraction activities, according to its draft energy policy released May 7.
- The bank says it also intends to deliver climate finance worth $80 billion between 2019 and 2030 to ensure that at least 75% of its projects address climate change issues.
- While green groups have welcomed the transition, they note that the draft energy policy has a loophole by potentially allowing fossil gas investments.
- ADB is set to release its final energy policy by October this year.

Leaders make bold climate pledges, but is it ‘all just smoke and mirrors?’: Critics
- Forty nations — producers of 80% of annual carbon emissions — made pledges of heightened climate ambition this week at U.S. President Joe Biden’s Leaders Summit on Climate. But as each head of state took to the podium, climate activists responded by pointing to the abysmal lack of action by those nations.
- As the U.S. promised to halve its emissions by 2030, advocates noted the lack of policies in place to achieve that goal, and the likelihood of intense Republican political resistance. China promised at the summit to eliminate coal plants, but 247 gigawatts of coal power is currently in planning or development stages there.
- The UK, EU, Japan, and South Korea all pledged to do more, but all are committed to burning forest biomass to replace coal — a solution relying on a longstanding carbon accounting error that counts forest biomass as carbon neutral, though scientists say it produces more emissions than coal per unit of electricity made.
- “This summit could be a critical turning point in our fight against climate change, but we have seen ambitious goals before and we have seen them fall flat. Today’s commitments must be followed with effective implementation, and with transparent reporting and accurate carbon accounting,” said one environmental advocate.

Illegal coal mine tunnels threaten a Sumatran village
- In 2018, after houses in nearby villages began to collapse into abandoned mine shafts below, residents of Sikalang village in West Sumatra province began to suspect that a nearby coal company was tunneling outside of its permitted area.
- Villagers, assisted by green group Walhi, successfully pushed the provincial authorities to investigate potential violations by miner CV Tahiti Coal.
- The investigation revealed that the company was illegally tunneling outside of its concession boundaries, and recommended law enforcement take up the matter.
- Police say investigations are ongoing, while activists say the case should serve as a cautionary example for other mining firms in the region.

South Korea faces a public reckoning for financing coal plants in Indonesia
- The coastal town of Suralaya in Indonesia’s West Java province has eight coal-fired power generating units in its vicinity, which residents blame for respiratory ailments and declining fish catches.
- South Korean public financial institutions are financing the expansion of the Suralaya facility through the construction of two new units that will be built by South Korean firm Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction and operated by a power company partly owned by a South Korean public utility.
- Support for the project is ongoing, despite South Korea’s own domestic transition away from coal power and attempts by some lawmakers to bar public funds from being directed to the coal industry.
- Activists view the South Korean government’s support for the project as an attempt to prop up the ailing Doosan, and to boost its ties with countries in Southeast and South Asia amid tensions with China.

‘We’re at a tipping point with coal’: Q&A with Bloomberg’s Antha Williams
- Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg was key in marshaling city and state governments across the U.S. to ramp up their climate action after the Trump administration pulled the country out of the Paris Agreement.
- With the climate-focused Biden administration now in office, Bloomberg Philanthropies is going “all-in toward climate solutions,” says Antha N. Williams, head of the foundation’s environment program.
- Among its main initiatives is the Beyond Coal campaign, which seeks to get OECD countries to transition away from coal by 2030 and the rest of the world by 2040.
- In this post-Trump follow-up interview with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler, Williams discusses a just energy transition, the role of finance in driving change, and the importance of ocean protection.

Indonesia’s net-zero emissions goal not ambitious enough, activists say
- Indonesia, one of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters, has put forward a plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070.
- The government says it’s the most ambitious and realistic target for Indonesia, but activists and experts say the government can do much more, much sooner, given that China, the top emitter, has a net-zero deadline of 2060.
- They also criticized the government’s plan for its continued reliance on coal as a primary component of the national energy mix over the coming decades, despite universal recognition of coal’s role in climate change.
- The plan also lumps coal gasification, which the government is incentivizing, into its basket of renewable energies; it may also include hydrogen (which uses fossil fuels in its production) and nuclear energy in this same category.

“Activism gives you hope”: Q&A with Wallace Global Fund’s Ellen Dorsey
- Ellen Dorsey, a veteran of the anti-apartheid movement, has used her activist experience and her leadership position at the Wallace Global Fund to push for divestment from the fossil fuel industry.
- The Wallace Global Fund has supported the fossil fuel divestment movement from its inception. By 2021, the movement had propelled divestment of over $14 trillion in assets from universities, pensions cities, faith groups and more.
- Dorsey launched Divest Invest Philanthropy, a coalition of over 200 foundations to divest their endowments from fossil fuels and invest in climate solutions. She says foundations can still do more to invest their endowments in climate solutions, and shouldn’t be “hoarding acorns” in this “moment of urgent need.”
- In an interview with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler, Dorsey talks about how the divestment movement makes financial sense, the futility of engaging with the fossil fuel industry to drive change from within, and how “everyone has to be an environmental activist if we’re going to save the planet.”

Frustration over light penalties for coal mine that polluted Indonesian river
- In February, a coal-slurry spill in a river in Indonesian Borneo killed thousands of fish and forced downstream municipalities to cut off water supplies.
- The local government issued a decree requesting that the company repair embankments, establish a system of inspections, develop a rapid response plan, and replace the dead fish.
- Activists say the official response is too light, noting that Indonesian law allows for criminal prosecution for environmental destruction, as well as penalties such as revoking mining licenses.

Indonesian campaigners triumph against a coal mine in top court
- Indonesia’s Supreme Court has rejected a final appeal from a coal company after it and the ministry of energy and mines lost a lawsuit filed by the Indonesian NGO Walhi three years earlier.
- The company, PT Mantimin Coal Mining (MCM), had received an operating permit in South Kalimantan province without completing an environmental permit, which Walhi successfully argued was illegal.
- Walhi urged the ministry of mines to obey and implement the Supreme Court’s decision.
- Walhi has also asked President Joko Widodo to immediately evaluate problematic mining permits in the province, especially after a disastrous flood this year was tied to operating and abandoned mines.

King Coal: How Indonesia became the fossil fuel’s final frontier
- Since 2000, Indonesia has transformed from a bit player in the global coal industry to a leading exporter and consumer of the fuel.
- While much of the world is shifting away from coal due to its contribution to global warming and water and air pollution, Indonesia’s government is taking steps that further entrench the country’s production and consumption of coal, and that make it difficult for alternative energy sources to gain a foothold.
- Proponents of coal in Indonesia’s government, including politicians who own shares in coal companies, point to the role coal plays in Indonesia’s economy and in promoting energy independence.

Never mind the mercury: Indonesia says coal ash isn’t hazardous
- The Indonesian government has taken fly ash and bottom ash from coal burning out of its list of hazardous waste.
- The distinction is crucial as the handling of “hazardous” waste is subject to different and far more stringent regulations than non-hazardous waste.
- The delisting comes in response to lobbying efforts by industry groups, which want to be allowed to sell coal ash to the construction industry.
- Indonesia is one of the world’s top coal producers, and the fossil fuel accounts for the majority of the country’s power generation.

Mining sites in Indonesia’s disaster-prone areas a ticking time bomb: Report
- Nearly 800 mining concessions in Indonesia are located in areas prone to earthquakes, landslides and floods, a new report shows.
- Environmental activists say the proliferation of these concessions shows a lax attitude by companies and the government toward environmental risk assessment.
- They warn that mining activity in these areas could lead to disaster for local communities and the environment, including spills of toxic tailings and pollution of water sources.
- Communities living near many mining concessions have voiced their concerns over such risks.

Dutch to limit forest biomass subsidies, possibly signaling EU sea change
- The Dutch Parliament in February voted to disallow the issuing of new subsidies for 50 planned forest biomass-for-heat plants, a small, but potentially key victory for researchers and activists who say that the burning of forests to make energy is not only not carbon neutral, but is dirtier than burning coal and bad climate policy.
- With public opinion opposing forest biomass as a climate solution now growing in the EU, the decision by the Netherlands could be a bellwether. In June, the EU will review its Renewable Energy Directive (RED II), whether to continue allowing biomass subsidies and not counting biomass emissions at the smokestack.
- Currently, forest biomass burning to make energy is ruled as carbon neutral in the EU, even though a growing body of scientific evidence has shown that it takes many decades until forests regrow for carbon neutrality to be achieved.
- The forestry industry, which continues to see increasing demand for wood pellets, argues that biomass burning is environmentally sustainable and a viable carbon cutting solution compared to coal.

Calls for accountability after coal-slurry spill in Indonesian river
- A coal-slurry spill into a river in Indonesian Borneo has killed hundreds of fish and forced authorities to shut off water lines to households.
- The slurry came from a waste facility run by coal miner PT Kayan Putra Utama Coal, which has apologized for the Feb. 7 incident and promised to distribute clean water to affected residents.
- Industry watchdogs and residents say such incidents are common on the Malinau River in North Kalimantan province, where coal mining is a major industry.
- The provincial legislature has called for an investigation and criminal charges if necessary against the company.

Indonesian police may probe coal miners over deforestation-linked floods
- The Indonesian police say they might investigate coal companies for their alleged role in recent deadly floods that struck southern Borneo.
- Critics accuse the companies of degrading the water catchment in South Kalimantan province through deforestation and sedimentation, which they allege amplified the impact of the rain-fueled floods.
- The government, meanwhile, is under fire for issuing more permits than the previous three administrations.
- Activists warn the environmental degradation in the province will only get worse under a slate of controversial deregulation measures passed by the government last year, which they say caters to coal companies at the expense of the environment.

Grim toll from Indonesia’s abandoned mines may get even worse, report warns
- The proliferation of abandoned mining pits throughout Indonesia has led to the deaths of 168 people, mostly children, from 2014-2020, according to a new report.
- Mining companies are required to fill in and rehabilitate their mining sites after their operations end, but many fail to do so, allowing the pits to fill with rainwater and become a drowning hazard.
- There has also been little to no law enforcement against companies that fail to rehabilitate their mining pits, leaving the families of those killed without any recourse to justice, activists say.
- They warn the problem will only get worse as operations at thousands of mines draw to a close and new deregulation measures undercut environmental and social safeguards.

Indonesia to push for mine rehab, reforestation after deadly floods
- The Indonesian government plans to reforest watershed areas in the Bornean province of South Kalimantan and compel coal-mining companies to rehabilitate their concessions there in response to recent deadly floods.
- Pit mines have degraded large swaths of the region’s watershed, undermining the ability of the land and rivers to absorb heavy rainwater runoff, which activists say exacerbated the scale of the floods.
- While the environment minister initially denied this, her office has now indicated it was aware of the problem at least five years earlier and will do more to get companies to rehabilitate their abandoned mining sites.
- Even if it succeeds, however, experts agree that, given the current state of technology, restoring forests from abandoned mining sites is unrealistic in any tangible time frame.

In Indonesia, a village held hostage by coal pleads for change
- Two new coal-fired power plants, PLTU 9 and 10, are being constructed in northwestern Java to provide an additional 2,000 MW of installed electricity capacity in Indonesia.
- Residents complain the cluster of eight existing coal plants in the area have already caused problems with public health, agriculture and water pollution.
- Analysts question the logic of constructing new plants in the Java-Bali grid, where supply already exceeds demand, and in light of the state utility’s mounting debts.

Planned coal-trucking road threatens a forest haven for Sumatran frogs
- The Harapan forest on the Indonesian island of Sumatra is teeming with frog species, one of which was just described last year.
- These amphibians are threatened by a coal-trucking road that the government has approved to be built right through the forest.
- Environmental activists have pushed back against the project, calling on the government to either suspend the project or approve alternative routes that would bypass the forest altogether or cut through a less pristine portion of it.
- The local government has promised to study the project’s impact, but activists point out the final decision lies with the central government, which gave the approval and has still not addressed their concerns.

Plantations, mines didn’t worsen flood, Indonesia says. The data begs to differ
- Indonesia’s environment minister claims deforestation for oil palm plantations and coal mines had nothing to do with a recent deadly flood in southern Borneo.
- But the ministry’s own data, and statements by a senior minister, attribute the intensity of the flooding on the massive loss of forest cover across the Barito River’s watershed.
- Environmental activists say the deforestation has compromised the natural function of the watershed to absorb the heavy rains that caused the Barito and its tributaries to overflow following heavy rains.
- The coordinating minister for human development has called for a more sustainable management of natural resources in the region, warning against unbridled exploitation.

Palm oil plantations, coal mines linked to deadly Indonesia flood
- Environmentalists have attributed recent heavy floods in southern Indonesian Borneo to widespread deforestation for oil palm plantations and coal mines.
- An analysis by Indonesia’s space agency shows an area of forest twice the size of London was cleared in the past decade in the watershed area of the Barito River in South Kalimantan province.
- During the same period, plantations spanning twice the size of Los Angeles have been established in the watershed area.
- Activists have called for a sweeping review of licenses as well as rehabilitation of degraded areas in the region.

As world sours on coal, top producer Indonesia tries to sweeten it at home
- With international demand slowing, the government of Indonesia, a major coal producer and exporter, is looking to boost domestic demand for the fossil fuel.
- The government has recently passed a series of regulations seen as favorable to the coal industry, and is also putting its support behind coal gasification plans.
- State-owned coal miner PT Bukit Asam plans to have a coal gasification plant operational by 2024, while the country’s largest private coal miner, PT Bumi Resources, plans to invest more than $1 billion into a similar facility. U.S.-based Air Products also plans to invest $2 billion in a facility in Indonesia.
- Proponents of coal gasification call it a “clean coal technology” that will boost the domestic economy; opponents warn it will further entrench Indonesia’s fossil fuel dependence.

Being realistic about coal mine rehabilitation in Indonesia: An ecological perspective
- Once covered in vast tropical forests, East Kalimantan, in the Indonesian half of Borneo Island, is today the most intensively mined province in Indonesia.
- Surface mining for coal has left behind vast expanses of barren land across the province.
- Under Indonesian law, mining companies are responsible for rehabilitating their mining concessions.
- In this analysis, based on field work in mining sites in East Kalimantan, restoration ecologists David Woodbury (School of the Environment, The Forest School, Yale University ) and Arbainsyah (Environmental Leadership & Training Initiative, Tropenbos Indonesia) argue the rehabilitation of coal mines is far more difficult, and likely far less effective, than environmentalists, mining companies and policy makers might hope.

Dolphins face growing pressure as development eats into Borneo’s interior
- The ecosystems of East Kalimantan province in Indonesian Borneo face increasing pressure due to mining, logging, industrial agriculture, infrastructure projects, and a plan to establish a new administrative capital city.
- One of the species imperiled by this rapid transformation is the Irrawaddy dolphin.
- Estuarine populations of the species already face severely negative impacts from increasing shipping traffic and coastal development in Balikpapan Bay.
- A critically endangered population of freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins living in the middle reaches of the Mahakam River are also under increasing pressure due to climate change, oil palm cultivation, coal mining and transport.

Coal stockpiles threaten public health, ancient temple, in Indonesian village
- For years, the residents of Muara Jambi village on the Indonesian island of Sumatra have had to breathe air polluted with coal dust from nearby storage facilities.
- The residents have complained of acute respiratory infections, and some have had coughs for months and have not yet recovered.
- The coal dust also threatens the Muaro Jambi temple complex, a Hindu-Buddhist compound constructed from the 7th-14th centuries and vulnerable to premature weathering because of the dust.
- To reduce the impact of coal dust, coal piles should not exceed 7 meters (23 feet) in height, but some piles in the area exceed 10 meters (33 feet). The local government says it is monitoring the situation.

Bribery-tainted coal plant in Indonesia held up as landowners hold out
- Landowners in Indonesia have refused the compensation offered by a power plant developer seeking to build on their land.
- This marks the latest setback for the Cirebon 2 coal-fired power plant project, which says it only wants to rent the land and not buy it outright.
- Construction of the 1,000-megawatt plant has already been held up by the COVID-19 pandemic, while the project developers also face allegations of bribing local officials to greenlight the venture.
- Other coal power plant projects in Indonesia have also been mired in corruption, with activists saying the confluence of money, politics and power makes them a “bribery hotspot.”

Philippines declares no new coal plants — but lets approved projects through
- The Philippines’ energy department says it will issue a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants, but will allow projects that have already been approved to be built.
- Coal accounts for nearly half of the Philippines’ energy mix, and is expected to increase to 53% by 2030, when the 22 proposed plants that have already been approved come online.
- No new coal power plants have been built in the country since 2017, amid massive community pushback, excess energy supply, and a Supreme Court ruling that voids power supply agreements.
- Despite the new moratorium, the Philippines is continuing to exploit its coal resources: days after the announcement, it opened the bidding to mine two new coal blocks in the country’s south.

Indonesia’s omnibus law a ‘major problem’ for environmental protection
- Global investors have joined local activists in raising concerns about the potential impact of environmental deregulation measures contained in a new law passed by Indonesia’s parliament.
- Among the many criticisms of the so-called omnibus law on job creation is that it restricts the public’s ability to consult on or challenge projects that may cause environmental and social harm.
- Provisions in the law also open the door for increased deforestation, which is the main driver of Indonesia’s greenhouse gas emissions.
- Activists say the law, ostensibly aimed at attracting foreign investment into Indonesia, is likely to draw investors who have little regard for environmental protection.

11 workers killed in landslide at illegal coal mining site in Indonesia
- Eleven workers were killed by a landslide at an illegal coal mining site in Muara Enim district in Indonesia’s South Sumatra province.
- South Sumatra has Indonesia’s largest known coal resources, which have drawn both legal and illegal miners.
- Illegal mining continues to be a problem in the province. The local government shut down eight such sites in 2019, some of which were in the same district as the site of the accident.
- The area’s large coal reserves prompted the Indonesian government, in cooperation with China, to build a power plant near the site of the accident.

South African activist killed as contentious coal mine seeks to expand
- Unknown gunmen have shot and killed a prominent critic of a coal mine and its proposed expansion in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province.
- No arrests have been made or suspects identified in the killing of Fikile Ntshangase, 65, at her home near the Tendele coal mine, which borders the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi game park.
- Ntshangase was part of a group taking legal action to prevent the mine’s expansion on the grounds that its existing operations fail to comply with environmental and other laws.
- The mine operator has linked the killing and other recent incidents of violence and intimidation to concerns in the community about job losses, suggesting that the violence will decrease if the proposed expansion is approved.

Indonesian officials linked to mining and ‘dirty energy’ firms benefiting from deregulation law
- Top Indonesian ministers who pushed for the passage of a deregulation bill that benefits the mining and “dirty energy” industry have links to some of those very companies, a new report shows.
- The report by a coalition of NGOs highlights “massive potential for conflicts of interest” in the drafting and passage of the so-called omnibus bill on job creation.
- Under the new law, coal companies can qualify for an exemption from paying royalties, as well as be absolved of criminal and financial sanctions for mining in forest areas.
- Activists say the omnibus law is emblematic of an increasingly “despotic” government that puts the interests of the wealthy few above the welfare of the country’s environment and its rural communities.

South Korea’s move away from coal leaves a Philippine power plant in limbo
- State-run Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) has announced it will either scrap or convert two overseas coal-fired power plant projects following a state audit.
- This comes after KEPCO was criticized for financing controversial coal plants in Indonesia and Vietnam despite the South Korean government’s own stated aim of divesting from the fossil fuel.
- The decision puts in limbo the construction of Sual 2, a 1,000-megawatt plant in the Philippines whose construction has been delayed due to community opposition.
- Sual 2 was expected to replace an existing coal-fired power plant scheduled for decommissioning in 2024 and blamed for a high incidence of respiratory ailments and contaminated water in the community.

Philippine community goes to court to stop coal plant in ecological haven
- Residents and civil society groups have launched a legal challenge to stop construction of a coal power plant in the Philippine province of Palawan.
- The project has been delayed for eight years due to widespread community opposition, but construction may begin soon after the developer, DMCI Power Corporation, secured the necessary permits.
- Indigenous groups say they were shut out of the consultation process, while environmental activists have warned of the project’s impact on one of the Philippines’ last ecological havens.
- Critics of the project also point out that Palawan has vast renewable energy potential that could meet its entire demand for electricity, mostly through small-scale hydro plants that don’t require the construction of reservoirs and dams.

Two deaths, zero accountability: Indonesia’s mining pits claim more lives
- Two boys drowned in a rain-filled mining pit in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province in early September, highlighting once again the danger posed by abandoned pits.
- Police have ruled the deaths accidental, but a mining watchdog plans to file a criminal complaint against the mining company, PT Sarana Daya Hutama (SDH), for failing to rehabilitate the site at the end of its operations, as required by law.
- There are more than 1,700 of these abandoned pits throughout East Kalimantan, Indonesia’s coal-mining heartland, which have claimed 39 lives since 2011.
- The companies behind them are rarely ever punished; the only one to be prosecuted was fined the equivalent of just 7 U.S. cents.

Lockdown should have cleared up Jakarta’s air. Coal plants kept it dirty
- Cities around the world have seen an improvement in air quality as a result of lockdowns and restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Jakarta has been a notable exception.
- A new study shows that persistently high levels of PM2.5 air pollutant in the Indonesian capital come from coal-fired power plants within 100 kilometers (60 miles) of the city.
- Indonesia is set to build more coal-fired power plants in the vicinity of Jakarta in the coming years while maintaining emissions standards that are much laxer than regional or global standards.
- Air pollution has a significant impact on public health and the economy, with studies linking it to higher rates of COVID-19 infection.

Analysis: Vietnam’s leadership flex shows how to drive electricity reform
- Vietnam’s Communist Party leadership has instituted a top-down reform of the country’s electricity sector in response to the need to shift away from coal and its growing list of associated problems.
- The country’s new energy strategy puts greater emphasis on renewables, including wind and solar, abandoning a decade-long commitment to investing in and subsidizing coal.
- The move is also helped by recent technological developments that have made generating renewable power at scale more economically feasible than ever.

Business risk and COVID-19 are pushing Asian financiers away from coal
- Three major Japanese banks have announced plans to divest from coal projects, while South Korea’s ruling party has pledged a similar policy proposal.
- The moves are part of a growing investor backlash against the fossil fuel, seen as an increasingly risky financial bet because of the costs of building and operating coal power plants amid sluggish electricity demand.
- The COVID-19 pandemic, and the economic shutdowns it prompted around the world, have contributed to a fall in thermal coal prices, with global demand for coal expected to decline by 8% this year.
- Environmental activists have welcomed the move away from coal, but say pressure must be sustained to ensure divestments out of coal projects that are planned or in pre-production.

Indonesia approves coal road project through forest that hosts tigers, elephants
- The Indonesian government has granted permission to a coal company to build a road that would cut through the highly biodiverse Harapan forest in Sumatra.
- The road is for transporting coal from the company’s mine to power plants in South Sumatra province.
- Experts have called on the company to have the road skirt the forest and use an existing road network, but the company has not issued any revision of its design.
- Conservationists and indigenous communities have warned that the road could devastate the ecosystem, create more habitat fragmentation and facilitate further encroachment for logging, hunting and agriculture.

Indonesia’s $300m geothermal play risks being undercut by cheap coal
- The Asian Development Bank has granted Indonesian power developer PT Geo Dipa Energi (GDE) a $300 million loan to expand two geothermal plants in Java.
- But the plants will be supplying the Java-Bali grid that is already 40% overcapacity,thanks to a glut of cheap power from coal-fired power plants.
- Clean-energy observers also say the expansion of the plants carries the risk of environmental damage, including land subsidence from groundwater extraction, and deforestation to build new wells.
- Indonesia plans to generate 23% of its electricity from renewable resources by 2025, but growth in renewables is far outstripped by existing and new coal-fired plants, 10 of which came online last year alone.

Deaths, arrests and protests as Philippines re-emerges from lockdown
- Environmental defenders have come under sustained threats during the Philippines’ COVID-19 lockdown, which saw one activist shot and killed by unknown assailants and at least 10 environmental and land defenders arrested.
- The most recent arrest is that of six farmers who opposed coal power projects and land-grabbing cases, while the fatality recorded during this period is an environmental and political activist who was gunned down in his home on April 30.
- President Rodrigo Duterte’s two-month lockdown mobilized the country’s police forces to man checkpoints, where they arrested 120,000 people for violations of quarantine guidelines, human rights activists say.
- Groups have denounced Duterte’s “militaristic approach” as an excuse to crack down on activists, members of the opposition, and land and environmental defenders amid the pandemic.

A Philippine island locked down, but its mine didn’t — and infections mounted
- Activists, clergy and politicians have demanded an investigation into the continued coal-mining activity on the Philippine island of Semirara while the region was supposed to be under strict quarantine.
- The first case on the island, and in the province of Antique, came from mine operator SMPC’s hospital and was confirmed on April 7; as of May 12, there are nine cases believed to have come from Semirara.
- Between the first case and May 15, when Semirara was under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and mining activity was therefore not permitted, SMPC reportedly continued operating, including loading a foreign vessel with coal for export.
- The company says it acted in accordance with the government’s COVID-19 protocols and in coordination with the relevant agencies.

In Colombia’s La Guajira, the native Wayuu are forgotten in the dust
- Synonymous in Colombia with extreme poverty and abandonment, the peninsula of La Guajira faces drought and coal dust pollution from one the world’s biggest coal mines.
- One of the main gateways for Venezuelan migrants, La Guajira’s desert is a chaotic border where smugglers operate in the open, international aid is weak, and there is little to offer to either the indigenous population or those arriving from Venezuela.
- The workers at the Cerrejón coal mine have demanded better working conditions, but measures to prevent COVID-19 have put a planned strike on hold and threaten La Guajira’s inhabitants and the Wayuu, the biggest indigenous nation in Colombia.

With new law, Indonesia gives miners more power and fewer obligations
- Indonesia’s parliament has passed a mining bill that activists say will lead to unbridled exploitation by a mining industry that already operates with impunity over environmental and social violations.
- The new law removes a limit on the size of mining operations and allows automatic permit extensions up to 20 years.
- Critics say the law effectively echoes the talking points of the mining industry while shutting out longstanding demands from civil society groups, villagers and others for greater reforms.
- The bill failed to pass last year in the face of massive street protests; lawmakers have been accused of exploiting the current period of social distancing restrictions to pass it largely unopposed.

On the brink of a coal boom, Papuans ask who will benefit
- Across Indonesia, a huge and poorly regulated coal industry has generated enormous wealth for investors but left local people behind to deal with the impacts of environmental degradation.
- The country’s easternmost Papua region has several untapped coal reserves. But the central government is working on a plan to open it for coal mining.
- An investigation into the coal industry in Horna, on the Bird’s Head Peninsula of the island of New Guinea, reveals that a company granted exploration rights in the area is closely connected to local and national power players.

Indonesia’s miners exploit loopholes to avoid restoring mining sites
- Abandoned mining pits litter the landscape across Indonesia, posing both environmental and public health problems.
- Mining companies are required by law to rehabilitate their concessions after operations end, but loopholes and blind spots in the regulatory framework allow them to shirk this obligation.
- A new report by an environmental NGO identifies these loopholes and the specific ways they allow miners to get away without punishment for failing to restore their concessions.
- The problem could get worse with the impending passage of two bills in parliament that seek even further deregulation of the mining sector, including the dismantling of environmental protections.

Indonesia won’t ‘sacrifice economy’ for more ambitious emissions cuts
- Indonesia won’t make the deeper emissions cuts needed to stave off catastrophic climate change because it wants to pursue economic growth, officials say.
- The country is one of the world’s biggest emitters, largely through deforestation, and is on track to increase its absolute volume of emissions by 2030 while still achieving its targeted reductions as a proportion of its baseline.
- That increase will be driven mostly by coal-fired power plants, as the government looks to boost economic growth.
- Officials and experts say there’s more room for ambitious emissions cuts in Indonesia’s energy sector than in its forestry and land-use sector.

Green groups target South Korea’s bailout of coal power plant builder
- Environmental groups are seeking an injunction against a 1 trillion won ($825 million) bailout by the South Korean government for Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co., a builder of coal-fired power plants.
- They say the company’s financial woes predate the COVID-19 crisis that the bailout is meant to address, and also that the rescue goes against South Korea’s climate and public health commitments.
- Eighty percent of Doosan’s revenue comes from building coal power plants, including highly polluting ones in South and Southeast Asia, where it is subject to less stringent air pollution standards than in South Korea.
- The injunction seeks to force the government to condition the bailout on Doosan transitioning away from coal and toward renewable energy technologies; but at a shareholder meeting days after the bailout decision, the company said it wanted to maximize revenue from its core business — coal — before expanding into new activities.

Colombian indigenous groups rush to protect elders, leaders from COVID-19
- To lower the risk of COVID-19 infection, indigenous communities in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta – the world’s highest coastal mountain range – have decided to temporarily close off the area to outsiders until the threat subsides.
- However, sources say this means that it will be more difficult for communities to obtain basic goods and services. A crowdfunding campaign is underway to help support 2,000 families in isolation.
- The pandemic adds another layer of stress to communities that have been beset with violence and hardship for decades. A brief reprieve in 2016 when the FARC rebel group demobilized looks to be ending as locals report a heightened presence of armed groups in the Santa Marta region since late 2019.
- Indigenous leaders say the outside world should consider the COVID-19 crisis to be an opportunity for humanity to change direction and be less destructive to the surrounding world.

In Sumatra, an indigenous plea to stop a coal road carving up a forest
- Teguh Santika, an indigenous Batin Sembilan woman in Sumatra, has called on the Indonesian government to reject a proposal by a coal miner to build a road that cuts through the Harapan forest where her community lives.
- Miner PT Marga Bara Jaya has since 2017 sought approval to build the road from its mine to a power plant; local authorities support the plan, but it still needs the approval of the environment ministry.
- A third of the 88-kilometer (55-mile) road will slice through the Harapan forest, which is home to threatened species such as the Sumatran tiger.
- The Batin Sembilan have for years been part of an initiative to restore the forest, which was previously a logging concession, and crack down on encroachment by oil palm farmers, illegal loggers and poachers.

Mining activity in Indonesia takes a hit from COVID-19 pandemic
- The COVID-19 pandemic has slammed the brakes on manufacturing activity in China, which has rippled through to the coal, nickel and tin miners in Indonesia that rely on the Chinese market.
- At least one nickel smelter project has been put on hold in Indonesia, while production at existing facilities is down.
- Coal miners, meanwhile, face a one-two blow from slowing Chinese demand and an anticipated domestic slowdown in Indonesia.
- The decline in manufacturing activity in China has led to a decrease in air pollution there, but activists warn the effect may be short-lived, with manufacturers expected to go into overdrive to make up for lost revenue after the pandemic peaks.

‘Unbridled exploitation’: Mining amendments a boon for Indonesia’s coal industry
- A deregulation bill currently working its way through Indonesia’s parliament could ring in “unbridled exploitation” of the country’s coal reserves, experts warn.
- The bill offers a slate of incentives to coal miners and cuts various safeguards and oversight mechanisms, including taking away local governments’ authority to issue permits.
- Observers question whether the government will be able to keep the industry in check under the proposed changes, given its failure to fully enforce environmental obligations under the current laws.
- They also warn of the “destruction” of regions with previously unexploited coal reserves, including Papua.

Vietnam’s new conservation plan prioritizes trees and people. Emissions? Not so much
- Under Vietnam’s proposed carbon for forest ecosystems services (C-PFES) program, the country’s 100 largest emitters, primarily cement manufacturers and coal-fired power plants, would pay forest communities and landowners to protect and expand forests.
- C-PFES, which appears to be the first national plan that puts a price on carbon and funnels those dollars specifically to forest conservation, is modeled on Vietnam’s existing PFES program, under which hundreds of hydropower plants, as well as some municipal water and ecotourism companies, have paid more than $500 million to thousands of rural households since 2011.
- Under C-PFES, cement manufacturers would pay $1.35 per ton of CO2, and coal plants would pay $2 per ton, well below the price called for by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of $40 to $80 per ton by the end of this year.
- Coal continues to provide nearly 40% of Vietnam’s energy generation. Under current plans, the country ranks third in the world, behind only China and India, in scheduled additional capacity.

In Indonesian renewables bill, activists see chance to move away from coal
- Indonesia’s parliament is drafting a bill on renewable energy that will be included in its docket of priority legislation for passage this year.
- Energy industry observers and activists have welcomed the move and called for policies to transition the country away from its heavy reliance on coal.
- Coal accounts for the majority of Indonesia’s energy mix, and looks to remain that way through to at least 2025, even though the country has vast untapped potential to generate power from geothermal, solar, wind and wave.
- Observers are also wary of the government’s definition of what constitutes new and renewable energy, which includes nuclear, gasified and liquefied coal, hydrogen, and even palm oil biodiesel.

Mining leads to flooding in Indonesia’s coal capital Samarinda
- Upstream coal-mining operations have contributed to severe flooding in the Indonesian Bornean city of Samarinda, officials and activists say.
- Deforestation caused by the mining has reduced the upstream area’s ability to absorb rainwater, resulting in greater volumes of runoff flowing into the Mahakam River and flooding the city.
- Tailings from the mines are also washing into the area’s rivers, silting them up and restricting their flow.
- Activists say much of the mining is illegal but has been ignored for years by city authorities.

Indonesian investigative reporter and journalism advocate Tommy Apriando, 1989-2020
- Tommy Apriando, an esteemed investigative journalist and chairperson of the Yogyakarta branch of Indonesia’s Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), died Sunday at the age of 30 after being hospitalized for complications from diabetes.
- In a country where environmental reporting is potentially deadly, Apriando wasn’t afraid to speak truth to power. He took on politicians who used their connections with oligarchs to enrich themselves, exposed abuses by mining and palm oil companies, and told the complex stories that underpin entrenched land conflicts.
- Apriando won deep respect from his peers for his courageous reporting, which regularly appeared on Mongabay, China Dialogue, The Pangolin Reports, and The Wire. In 2019, he was elected to lead AJI in Yogyakarta, where he was an outspoken advocate for press freedom and the welfare of other journalists.
- Apriando is survived by his wife, Wiwid Ervita, his mother, Jamsiah, and his younger sister, Dwi Unzirzam.

Borneo locals win a court battle to bar a coal miner from their land
- Indonesia’s Supreme Court has ruled that a coal mining firm seeking to operate in South Kalimantan province should have its permit revoked.
- Indigenous activists, local officials and conservation groups successfully argued that the firm, PT Mantimin Coal Mining, should not have been issued a permit without a full environmental impact assessment.
- The verdict was issued in October but the parties to the case have still not been officially notified and PT MCM’s permit has yet to be revoked.

Report identifies tycoons controlling site of new Indonesian capital
- The site for Indonesia’s planned new capital city overlaps with 162 coal mining and pulpwood plantation concessions, a report by a coalition of NGOs has revealed.
- The concessions are linked to some of Indonesia’s wealthiest and most powerful businesspeople and politicians, raising concerns over how the government will get them to relinquish the concessions.
- Moving the capital from Jakarta to the new site in Borneo is also expected to benefit coal companies, which look set to provide the bulk of the electricity for what the government initially slated would be a “zero-emission” city.
- The government has downplayed concerns about the concessions at the site, saying the $33.5 billion project will be an opportunity to repair the environmental damage done by the companies operating in the area.

In Indonesia’s provinces, ditching coal for renewables would cut carbon and costs: study
- Contrary to often-used arguments that fossil fuels are cheaper than renewable energy in Indonesia, a recent analysis found that shifting to renewables could actually cut both emissions and costs.
- The analysis, part of a joint Indonesian-Danish energy program, was conducted in four Indonesian provinces. It found that if those provinces fully developed their potential renewable energy sources, they could save up to 11.5 million tons of CO2 by 2030 and nearly 40 trillion rupiah (US$2.8 billion) each year.
- Each of the four provinces — North Sulawesi, Gorontalo, South Kalimantan and Riau — has significant potential for renewable energy generation, but local governments currently plan to rely on fossil fuels like coal to meet long-term energy demand.

Plans for a new Indonesian capital put Borneo’s abandoned mines in the spotlight
- Two inactive coal open-pits, each of which has claimed the life of a child in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan, have been set for a restoration initiative led by the government.
- The government insists that owners of the abandoned mine pits will be held fully responsible for the costs of restoration work.
- The move comes amid a national plan to relocate the country’s capital from Jakarta to the Bornean province, so the abandoned pits have been identified as a top problem that needs solving.
- Environmentalists welcome the initiative to restore the abandoned open-pits, but said that turning them into agritourism sites was not a solution, as it would likely create new problems.

Follow the permits: How to identify corruption red flags in Indonesian land deals
- Corruption is rife in Indonesia’s plantation and mining sectors, especially when it comes to the issuance of permits.
- For journalists and activists who lack the expansive powers of Indonesia’s law enforcement agencies, finding evidence of corruption in the issuance of licenses can be challenging.
- This article defines a number of red flags we have identified over the past several years, explains what they reveal and details the methods that can be used to identify them.

Analysis: Floating solar power along the dammed-up Mekong River
- This year, the first floating solar power generating system in Southeast Asia was deployed on a reservoir in Vietnam.
- Floating solar power systems are being written into the energy master plans of Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines as well as Vietnam, and into the calculations of investment banks.
- The technology presents an alternative to additional hydroelectric power projects.

Indonesia ‘must stop building new coal plants by 2020’ to meet climate goals
- Indonesia must stop building coal-fired power plants by next year if it’s to keep up its commitments to the Paris climate agreement, according to a new analysis.
- The country would also have to stop burning coal by 2048 in order to contribute to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels and achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
- That scenario looks highly unlikely, though, with 39 coal plants under construction and 68 announced, and installed coal-fired capacity set to double over the next decade.
- Analysts say a major obstacle to breaking Indonesia’s coal addiction is the lack of policies encouraging investment in renewable energy sources.

South Korea funding coal plants overseas that would be banned at home
- South Korean government-owned financial institutions are funding the construction of coal-fired power plants across less-developed countries that wouldn’t meet the stringent pollution standards imposed domestically.
- That’s the finding of a new Greenpeace report, which also warns that pollution from these plants could lead to up to 150,000 premature deaths over the life cycle of the plants.
- Domestically, South Korea has banned the construction of new coal plants and is moving toward phasing out existing ones.
- The report’s authors have denounced the double standard and called on the governments in countries hosting these new plants to eschew coal altogether and invest in renewable energy.

Coal spill bedevils Indonesian beach more than a year later
- Coal from a barge that spilled onto a beach in Indonesia’s Aceh province in July 2018 still hasn’t been fully cleaned up.
- Lampuuk Beach, on the northern tip of Sumatra, is hosting a surfing championship this weekend, but participants and residents say that coal continues to litter and contaminate the site.
- The coal was destined for a power plant run by a cement producer, which had experienced an identical spill in 2016 at a nearby beach.
- While authorities have ordered the cement producer to clean up the site, the company says the barge operator should be held responsible.

Their lawsuit against a coal firm in limbo, Bornean villagers take their fight online
- In Indonesian Borneo’s Central Hulu Sungai district, indigenous people, farmers and fishers have been joined by the local government in their opposition to a planned coal mine.
- With support from conservation NGO Walhi, the district’s residents have launched a lawsuit alleging that the central government illegally issued a permit to PT Mantimin Coal Mining a subsidiary of Indian firm Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS).
- The lawsuit has twice been rejected on technicalities by lower courts. While activists await news on whether the Supreme Court will hear the case, they have intensified a protest campaign under the banner “Save Meratus.”

Lawsuit against Indonesian coal plant reveals permit irregularities
- Residents opposed to a newly built coal-fired power plant in Sumatra have alleged a list of irregularities that they say should have disqualified the developer from obtaining an environmental permit.
- A key point is that the project violates provincial and municipal zoning regulations; the latter allows for a plant to be built, but at a different location, while the former makes no accommodation for a coal plant.
- The project site, on Sepang Bay along the southwest coast of Sumatra, has also been identified as an area prone to earthquakes and tsunamis, while the developer hasn’t formalized plans for such contingencies.
- The National Ombudsman has weighed in with findings of maladministration by the provincial government in issuing the environmental permit, but adds that the zoning regulations should be adapted to accommodate for the plant now that it’s been built and is undergoing a trial run.

A Sumatran forest community braces for battle against a planned coal mine
- The Pangkalan Kapas forest on the eastern coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island is important both to local communities and to the endangered wildlife of a nearby nature reserve.
- But it faces what conservationists fear is an existential threat from a planned coal mine that has been granted a 3,000-hectare (7,400-acre) concession for open-pit mining there.
- The project has met with resistance from local communities and environmental activists, including an online petition calling for it to be scrapped.
- The company that holds the concession was also mired in a fraud and corruption case involving one of its owners — a common problem in Indonesia’s notoriously corrupt mining sector.

Coal power plants flourish in the Philippines despite ‘climate emergency’
- Coal has long been the primary power source in the Philippines, and large-scale power plants act as a safety crutch in the country’s quest for energy security.
- But the advent of cost-efficient renewable energy technologies is challenging coal’s dominance as the go-to energy source.
- President Rodrigo Duterte has voiced support for renewables but has yet to release an executive mandate that could propel the energy department to change its coal-dependent roadmap.
- Any meaningful shift to renewables would require drastic changes in priorities and perspective, according to an energy think tank.

Hundreds protest pollution from coal-fired power plant in Java
- Hundreds of people in central Java earlier this week staged a protest demanding a resolution over waste mismanagement at a coal-fired power plant that has polluted their village.
- Residents of the village of Winong have since 2016 blamed the Cilacap plant and its Jakarta-based operator for polluting their air and depleting the water table.
- The local environment agency had carried out an investigation last year and ordered the operator to take measures to remedy the problem.
- However, the results of that investigation were not released untilthis week, and then only after protests from the villagers. The evaluation of the remedial measures has still not been published.

Martial law in Mindanao takes deadly toll on land, environmental defenders
- The island of Mindanao has long been the deadliest place in the Philippines for individuals defending their land and environment from extractives and agribusiness interests.
- The threat to these defenders escalated with the imposition in 2017 of a state of martial law across Mindanao, meant to help the government root out terrorists who had seized the city of Marawi.
- Under the pretext of security operations, however, the military has ramped up its targeting of land and environmental defenders, according to the watchdog group Global Witness.
- Global Witness named the Philippines the deadliest country in the world for environmental defenders in 2018, recording at least 30 killings that year.

Indonesia rushes to pass bill seen as pandering to mining companies
- Indonesia’s parliament is rushing to pass a controversial mining bill by Sept. 30, when the current legislators’ term ends.
- President Joko Widodo had previously asked for deliberations of this bill and other contentious pieces of legislation to be suspended, following massive student-led protests that have turned deadly.
- Watchdogs say the bill panders to the interests of mining companies, granting them bigger concessions, longer contracts, and fewer environmental obligations.
- The Widodo administration has also criticized parliament’s rush to pass the bill, but legislators say they are within their rights to do so.

War on graft in mining, palm oil hit by new law weakening Indonesian enforcer
- Indonesia’s anti-corruption commission and its supporters have warned that the passage of a new law will severely hamper the fight against graft, including in the natural resources sector.
- The law is the culmination of more than a decade of attempts by parliament — whose members have frequently been charged and convicted of corruption — to curb the powers of the commission known as the KPK.
- The KPK had in recent years intensified its focus on tackling graft in the mining, plantation and natural resources industries.
- The sector has long been rife with corruption, most commonly the issuance of permits and concessions by local officials in exchange for bribes from companies.

Report highlights business, political players behind Philippine environment defender deaths
- Global Witness, an eco-watchdog, has linked businesses and investors, including development banks to the increasing violence against land and environmental defenders in the Philippines, a practice rooted in the country’s “business at all costs” approach, it says in a new report.
- In a previous Global Witness report, released in July, the Philippines was named the deadliest country in the world for environmental defenders after recording 30 deaths in 2018 alone.
- The report calls on international banks and providers of foreign loans and aid to refrain from investing in big-ticket projects that endanger environmental defenders in the Philippines.

Uncovered coal barges are polluting North Sumatra’s waters
- Coal is brought by ship to fuel a power plant in the Pangkalan Susu area of Indonesia’s North Sumatra province.
- Mongabay observed ships waiting for days to be unloaded, moored in the Malacca Strait with piles of coal exposed to the open air.
- The strait ecosystem, including the fish and shrimp that local communities rely on for their sustenance and livelihood, is threatened by exposure to toxins from both the coal and ash settling in the water.
- The local community and fishermen have reported decreased catches and failed fish farm harvests, and attributed these to the operation of the Pangkalan Susu power plant.

Japan builds coal plants abroad that wouldn’t be allowed at home: Report
- Japan is investing heavily in building coal-fired power plants overseas that would fall short of its own domestic emissions standards, according to a Greenpeace report.
- Pollution from these plants, in places such as India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Bangladesh, could potentially lead to 410,000 premature deaths over the 30-year lifetime of the plants.
- Japan is the only country in the G7 group of wealthiest nations still actively building coal-fired plants domestically and overseas, which threatens international efforts to reduce carbon emissions and stall global warning.
- Activists say by building on its own renewable energy potential, Japan can set a positive example for the countries in which it’s investing in energy infrastructure.

Indonesia’s president signals a transition away from coal power
- Indonesia’s president has reportedly signaled a major shift in energy policy, saying he wants to “start reducing the use of coal.”
- Such a policy would run counter to the administration’s previously stated long-term plans of fueling the country’s growing energy demand with coal, with 39 coal-fired plants under construction and 68 more announced.
- Indonesia is one of the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, and while the main culprit is deforestation and land-use change, the energy sector is poised to overtake it.
- Energy policy analysts have welcomed the reported change in stance from the government, noting that Indonesia has long lagged other countries in developing clean power, despite having an abundance of renewable energy sources.

Drowning deaths at disused mines in Indonesia renew calls for action
- Two children have drowned in abandoned mining pits in the Indonesian Bornean city of Samarinda, bringing the toll from such accidents there to 35 in the last eight years.
- Officials say the victims and their families are to blame — an attitude that has raised the ire of local activists.
- The activists have demanded stronger enforcement of regulations requiring mining companies to fill in and restore their disused mining sites.
- An audit has shown that most mining companies simply don’t comply. And with few consequences or liability for the deaths, there seems little incentive for the companies to change their practices.

A forest beset by oil palms, logging, now contends with a coal-trucking road
- The Harapan forest in southern Sumatra, Indonesia, faces threats from illegal logging, encroachment by oil palm growers, poaching of its wildlife, and the loss of funding for conservation initiatives.
- An indigenous community, conservation managers and activists have highlighted another danger that risks fragmenting the biodiverse lowland rainforest: a coal-trucking road that would slice through the area.
- Local authorities reviewing the project proposal have called on the company behind it to consider a road that skirts the forest instead, but the company has not yet published a revised plan.
- The forest’s Batin Sembilan indigenous group says the creation of a road will increase access into the forest, exacerbating long-simmering tensions with migrant communities they accuse of trying to grab the land.

Exposing coal-fueled politics: Q&A with investigative journo Dandhy Laksono
- In the days leading up to the Indonesian presidential election in April, a documentary film exposed how the two candidates were deeply tied to the country’s coal oligarchs.
- The 90-minute film, Sexy Killers, describes the expansion of coal mines in East Kalimantan, the Bornean province known as Indonesia’s coal heartland, and how the industry has wrought environmental, financial and social damages on local communities.
- The documentary has racked up more than 22 million views on YouTube since its public release shortly before the April 17 election.
- Mongabay recently spoke with Dandhy Laksono, the investigative journalist behind the documentary, about the key revelations it raises regarding Indonesia’s political elite and the coal industry.

Survey: Less coal, more solar, say citizens of Belt & Road countries
- Residents in countries where China has invested in infrastructure building under its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) would much rather prefer investments in renewable power projects than coal, a survey has found.
- Coal projects accounted for up to 42 percent of China’s overseas investment in 2018, making the country the world’s biggest funder of coal power development overseas, which threatens to scupper international climate goals.
- A draft communiqué of a BRI forum taking place this week in Beijing shows an increased focus on ensuring “green” development, although activists say this may just be lip service.
- The Indonesian delegation to the BRI forum plans to pitch for investments in a slate of projects, including four coal plants, despite being one of the countries where foreign investment in coal is viewed unfavorably.

Indonesia electricity chief charged with bribery over coal-fired power plant
- Indonesian anti-graft investigators have charged the head of state-owned power utility PLN, Sofyan Basir, with bribery in connection to a coal-fired plant on the island of Sumatra.
- Sofyan was responsible for awarding contracts for the $900 million Riau-1 plant, whose construction has been suspended following a raft of corruption allegations and arrests.
- Among those already tried and convicted in the case are a government minister, a member of parliament, and a shareholder in one of the companies awarded the Riau-1 contract; Sofyan himself faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
- Environmental activists have praised the anti-graft commission for pursuing the case, which they say should spur the government to move away from coal and shift toward renewable energy.

Report finds World Bank’s coal divestment pledge not stringent enough
- Six Indonesian coal miners received funding from banks that were in turn funded by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation.
- The World Bank pledged in 2013 to end direct financing for coal, and while these instances highlighted in a new report constitute a form of indirect financing, watchdogs say the institution needs to do more.
- The IFC’s Green Equity Strategy is seen a good start toward ending the lender’s coal exposure, both direct and indirect, but the report identifies what it says are loopholes that could render the strategy ineffective.

In ‘Sexy Killers,’ journos probe Indonesian candidates’ ties to Big Coal
- A documentary film was recently published online showing the links between Indonesian coal and energy companies and the country’s political elites.
- The release came ahead of Indonesia’s presidential election on April 17 where more than 190 million people are set to vote.
- The documentary has been received more than 6.5 million views on YouTube within two days after its public release.

Report highlights secretive business dealings of Indonesian VP hopeful
- A new report links two of Indonesia’s most prominent political figures, one of them a vice presidential candidate, with mysterious offshore financial transactions related to coal companies they owned.
- The report, from the international anti-corruption NGO Global Witness, suggests that businessmen and politicians Sandiaga Uno and Luhut Pandjaitan both may have taken advantage of corporate secrecy techniques that obscured ownership of companies and flows of millions of dollars in cash.
- While there is no evidence that Luhut or Sandiaga have engaged in any illegal activity, the issues raised in the report are at the heart of a global financial system that has allowed the tools of corporate secrecy, which can facilitate corruption, tax dodging and conflicts of interest, to spread unchecked.
- Sandiaga is running for vice president in the April 17 election on a ticket led by former military general Prabowo Subianto. Luhut, himself a former general, is a senior minister and close adviser to the incumbent, President Joko Widodo.

New report lays out low-carbon development path for Indonesia
- The Indonesian government published a report showing how the country could reap tremendous economic benefits by transitioning to a low-carbon economy.
- According to the report, a low-carbon development path could deliver an average of 6 percent GDP growth per year until 2045, with continued gains in employment, income growth and poverty reduction.
- This strategy would also cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions nearly 43 percent by 2030, exceeding Indonesia’s international climate target.
- The low-carbon model would require Indonesia to cut its reliance on coal, whereas the government’s current plan is to build more coal-fired power plants.

PNG politicians push coal as Pacific islanders rail against climate change
- Politicians in Papua New Guinea have thrown their support behind a plan to power the country’s development through coal.
- The plan to establish coal mines and power plants gained prominence following a publicity tour hosted by rugby stars and sponsored by Australian mining and energy firm Mayur.
- Mayur’s proposal for a project combining coal, solar and biomass energy remains stalled, pending approval by the country’s newly restructured energy utility.
- The project faces opposition both locally and in other Pacific island states, where climate change-driven sea level rises pose a serious threat.

For Indonesian presidential hopefuls, burning coal is business as usual
- Indonesia relies for more than half of its electricity on coal-fired power plants, and has plans to build dozens more in the coming years, bucking a worldwide shift away from fossil fuels and toward renewable sources of energy.
- Activists have called on President Joko Widodo and his challenger, Prabowo Subianto, to address the issue at their presidential debate on Feb. 17.
- Neither camp, however, has made any meaningful policy gestures on environmental issues, with a Widodo campaign spokesman even disputing the science on coal’s central role in climate change as merely “an opinion.”
- Instead, the incumbent, who enjoys a solid lead on his challenger, looks set to deepen Indonesia’s reliance on coal as the primary energy source.

COP24: Fossil Fuel Inc.’s outsize presence at talks reflects its influence
- A confrontation between activists and an oil executive at the U.N. climate talks has highlighted just how much influence fossil fuel producers continue to have over global climate policies.
- The confrontation involved the same Shell executive who, days earlier, boasted about the company influencing one of the key provisions in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
- Fossil fuel companies, from oil producers to coal operations, are enjoying a prominent presence at the climate talks in Poland, including as sponsors and as speakers at events throughout the summit.
- Activists have blasted the U.N. for giving the companies such an important platform, saying that it only confirms their long-held suspicions that the very corporations contributing to the climate crisis are the same ones pushing supposed solutions to the problem.

COP24: Europe looks to fill the leadership void left by the U.S.
- The withdrawal from the Paris Agreement of the United States — the world’s second-biggest CO2 emitter and also its main source of climate funding — has left the global community without a clear leader on climate action.
- The European Union has emerged as a potential successor, following the publication of proposal that aims to see the bloc go carbon-neutral by 2050.
- But observers say the EU’s own targets need to be more aggressive, while the union’s chief says other countries will also need to step up their own climate goals.
- There are also concerns that the EU’s 2050 carbon-neutral plan relies heavily on so-called renewable gas, a source of methane — a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2.

COP24: Coal casts a shadow over U.N. climate talks in Poland
- Activists have questioned the integrity and effectiveness of the U.N. climate talks in Poland, in light of its close associations with the coal industry.
- Among the event’s sponsors are three Polish coal companies, and in his opening speech, the Polish president said his country’s continued use of coal did not go against efforts to tackle climate change.
- Activists say the influence of the coal lobby at the conference amounts to greenwashing and could undermine the effectiveness of any outcome from the discussions.

Women in small-island states exposed to high levels of mercury: study
- Tests of hair samples from hundreds of women in small-island countries and territories found 75 percent had mercury levels high enough to cause fetal neurological damage.
- Nearly 60 percent of the women had mercury levels exceeding a threshold beyond which brain damage, IQ loss, and kidney and cardiovascular damage can occur.
- The report attributed the mercury pollution in fisheries in these regions to air emissions of the toxic heavy metal emanating from coal-fired power plants and artisanal gold mining.
- The researchers have called for a complete ban on the trade in and use of mercury, and urged a transition away from coal power to renewables.

Activists urge end to South Korean funding of Indonesia coal plants
- Activists in Indonesia have called on three South Korean financial institutions to withdraw their funding for new coal-fired power plants to be built in Java.
- The plants will be part of a complex that is already the biggest polluter in Southeast Asia, whose proximity to the metropolis of Jakarta could put the health of 30 million people at risk.
- The funding bucks a rising trend worldwide by governments and financial institutions to divest from coal projects and put their money in renewables instead.
- Building the new plants also makes little economic sense in light of dire warnings that the world must completely end coal-fired power generation by 2050 to avoid a global temperature rise of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

Runners’ woes at Asian Games highlight Jakarta’s air pollution problem
- Athletes competing in the just concluded Asian Games in Jakarta suffered from some of the worst air quality in a city hosting a major sports event in recent years.
- Levels of PM10 and PM2.5, classes of particles in the air, exceeded World Health Organization guidelines for the duration of the Games, despite vehicle restrictions imposed by the Jakarta government.
- Activists say officials are overlooking the fact that more than half the air pollution in Jakarta is caused by factors other than vehicle emissions, including several coal-fired power plants.
- Officials in the central government have denied that there’s an air pollution problem, but those in the city administration have acknowledged the issue and called for a holistic approach to tackling the range of factors.

Graft and government policy align to keep Indonesia burning coal
- Antigraft investigators arrested a member of parliament and a coal businessman, among others, in July in connection with a contract to build a $900 million power plant in Indonesia.
- The case has shone a spotlight on the country’s boom in mine-mouth power plants, which burn the lowest-quality coal available and are awarded to developers in an opaque process that makes them ripe for corruption.
- Indonesia continues to plow millions into subsidies for coal-fired power plants, and plans to keep relying on the fossil fuel to generate the bulk of its energy mix beyond 2027.
- This is despite ample studies and evidence showing it can reduce power generation costs and cut greenhouse gas emissions significantly by reallocating those subsidies to renewable energy projects.

On an island in the sun, coal power is king over abundant solar
- Locals and environmentalists have opposed a plan to expand a coal-fired power plan in northern Bali, Indonesia.
- They are worried that the expansion will exacerbate the existing impact of the plant on the environment and locals’ health and livelihoods.
- A particular concern focuses on the survival of dolphins and endemic species living in close proximity to the plant, with Greenpeace saying the dolphins have particularly been affected since the plant came on line in 2015.
- Another major worry is air pollution, with many locals complaining of respiratory ailments as a result of the fumes and coal dust emitted from the plant.

Indonesia demands cleanup after coal spill pollutes beach
- A coal barge spilled 7,000 tonnes of the fossil fuel just off a beach in northern Sumatra on July 30.
- The coal was reportedly destined for a nearby cement plant run by a subsidiary of Swiss giant LafargeHolcim, but now blankets a popular beach.
- Local fishermen and activists say the coal has damaged coral and killed marine life, devastating the livelihoods of the community.
- Officials have called on the cement firm and barge operator to clean up the coal, while environmental experts are pushing for a lawsuit against the companies.

In Sumatra, villagers blame a coal mine for cracks in their houses, and their community
- Residents of Padang Birau village in Indonesia’s Jambi province say a nearby coal mine has led to social and environmental problems, and is disrupting their lives.
- Villagers say their houses have been damaged and their sleep interrupted since a mine road began operation, requiring frequent maintenance from a vibrating roller. They also point to air and water pollution from coal dust.
- Other area residents support the mine, particularly people who work as delivery drivers for the mining company.

In Indonesia’s coal heartland, jaded voters weigh the ‘same old’ candidates
- Years of rampant natural resources exploitation and mismanagement in East Kalimantan, the coal-mining heartland of Indonesia, have resulted in voter apathy as the province goes to the polls for a new governor this week.
- All the candidates are veteran local officials, most implicated in corruption cases, fueling a sense that there will be little improvement in the management of the province’s mines, regardless of who wins.
- Environmental activists say none of the candidates appear to be concerned about the environment, with no definitive programs on environmental conservation in any of their stated campaign platforms.

In a country long wary of nuclear, an Indonesian chases the thorium dream
- The image of nuclear energy took a huge hit after the catastrophic accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan in 2011. Some countries are phasing out their nuclear power programs.
- Around the world, however, proponents of an alternative type of reactor billed as safer and more efficient are gaining steam with their ideas. One of them is Bob Effendi, a native of Indonesia.
- Indonesia has long been skeptical of nuclear power. But at the country struggles to meet its targets for renewable energy, some within the government appear to be listening to the thorium pitch.

India eyes coal reserves in Indonesian Papua
- India is looking to get in on the ground floor of coal mining in previously unexploited deposits in Indonesian Papua.
- The details of an Indian mining project in Papua are still being negotiated — what India will get in return for financing surveys is said to be a sticking point — but the Indonesian government is keen to explore energy resources in the country’s easternmost provinces.
- Rights activists fear the launch of a new mining industry could deepen tensions in a region where existing extractive projects have damaged the environment and inflamed a long-running armed conflict.

In export- and domestic-driven coal boon, Indonesia neglects renewables
- Indonesia’s coal industry is enjoying a resurgence, driven both by rising demand from China — the world’s biggest consumer of the fossil fuel — and a push by the government in Jakarta to build more coal-fired power plants.
- Producers in Indonesia, one of the world’s biggest coal exporters, are seen as maximizing their output in response to the current favorable market conditions, confident that domestic demand will serve as a buffer against another export slump.
- However, activists warn that the coal rush will only hasten Indonesia’s “environmental destruction,” citing the high costs that the mining and power-generation industries have already exacted on both the ecosystem and communities.

Report blames coal-fired plant in Bali for pollution, loss of livelihoods
- A coal-fired power plant in Celukan Bawang village in Bali, Indonesia, was completed in 2015 to provide up to two-fifth of the resort island’s electricity and help jump-start the local economy.
- An investigation by advocacy group Greenpeace has since revealed persistent opposition to the project by residents, who have voiced concerns over health and environmental issues, as well as land compensation.
- In its report, Greenpeace calls on the district, provincial and national governments to regularly monitor the changes in the area and focus on development based on renewable energy sources.
- The district environmental agency says its own tests show that air and water quality in the area remain within safe limits. It says it has required the plant operator to submit an environmental report every six months.

Coal mine diverts Sumatran river without a permit, leaving villagers short of clean water
- Since coal mining company PT Seluma Prima Coal set up operations in 2015, residents of Rangkiling Bakti village in Jambi, Sumatra say they have suffered from a lack of clean water as well as from landslides and flooding.
- Although a permit to do so is still being processed, PT SPC and its partners have diverted the course of Sungumai River, which runs through their concession.
- The company has drilled wells and promised other social initiatives, but area residents have continued to protest, calling for more compensation and for legal measures to be taken against the company.

Coal company fined 2 billion rupiah for illegal waste dumping in Borneo
- Residents of villages along the Santan River in East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo, have long complained they are suffering from pollution due to coal mining and burning in the area.
- In December, coal company PT Indominco Mandiri was fined 2 billion rupiah ($145,000) after it was found guilty of illegally dumping hazardous waste from its power plant.
- Activists say the verdict did not go far enough, calling for prison sentences for company officials and a revocation of the company’s license to operate.
- Company representatives say they respect the court’s verdict, and note they have only been found guilty of illegal dumping, not polluting the waterway.

Indonesia may achieve renewables target, but still favors coal for power
- Indonesia is set to achieve its target for renewables portion in the national energy mix by 2025, but the country will still rely heavily on coal in the next 10 years, according to revisions in the national electricity plan.
- The new plan also sees cuts to the country’s target to install additional electricity capacity across the archipelago by 2027 amid stagnant demand, slower-than-projected economic growth, and state utility PLN’s financial concerns over the glut of idle power in some parts of the nation.
- Energy activists, however, argue that the trims are still not enough to solve PLN’s financial woes or to reduce Indonesia’s dependence on health- and environment-damaging coal.

In a land untouched by mines, indigenous holdouts fight a coal invasion
- Despite opposition from local officials and the absence of a required environmental impact assessment, a coal company was granted a permit to mine in Indonesian Borneo’s Central Hulu Sungai district.
- The local Dayak people have vowed to fight the mine, and an environmental NGO is suing the central government for issuing the permit.
- The permit was issued after changes to the law — said to simplify the process of issuing permits — allowed mining firm PT MCM to sidestep local officials.

Sumatra’s ‘tiger descendants’ cling to their customs as coal mines encroach
- Sekalak village in southern Sumatra lies in one of the last remaining strongholds of the Sumatran tiger, a critically endangered species that the locals revere as both an ancestral spirit and the guardian of the forest.
- This respect for the tiger has sustained a generations-long pledge to protect the local environment, including the wildlife and water resources.
- However, the presence of a coal-mining operation in the area poses a threat to both the tigers and the villagers’ way of life: the mining road gives poachers greater access to once-secluded tiger habitat, and the mining waste is polluting the river on which the villagers depend.

Indonesia’s Aceh extends moratorium on new mining sites
- The governor of Indonesia’s Aceh province has extended for another six months a moratorium on issuing new mining permits.
- The government says it will use the extended moratorium period to review and improve the management of the province’s mining sector.
- The freeze has been in place since 2014, and has been credited by activists with saving hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest in Aceh — home to critically endangered Sumatran orangutans, tigers, rhinos and elephants — from being cleared.

Audio: Margaret Atwood on her conservation-themed graphic novel, dystopian futures, and how not to despair
- Today’s episode features best-selling author and environmental activist Margaret Atwood as well as the founder of a beverage company rooted in the Amazon whose new book details the lessons he’s learned from indigenous rainforest peoples.
- Margaret Atwood, whose novels and poetry have won everything from an Arthur C. Clarke Award for best Science Fiction to the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction, recently tackled a medium she is not as well-known for: comic books. Not only that, but she has written a comic book series, called Angel Catbird, that “was a conservation project from the get-go,” she told Mongabay.
- Our second guest is Tyler Gage, co-founder of the beverage company Runa. “Runa” is the word the indigenous Kichwa people use to describe the effects of drinking guayusa; it translates to “fully alive” — which also happens to be the name of a new book that Gage has just published detailing the lessons he learned in the Amazon that led to the launch of Runa and its mission to partner with indigenous communities in business.

New research projects two percent increase in global emissions in 2017
- A new report from the Global Carbon Project and the University of East Anglia projects that emissions will have risen about two percent by the time 2017 draws to a close.
- According to the report, global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and industry will reach about 37 billion metric tons in 2017, setting a new record. Emissions from all human activities, including fossil fuel use, industry, and land-use change, is projected to be about 41 billion metric tons, close to the record set in 2015.
- Emissions growth in China and other developing countries is largely to blame for the overall increase in 2017, the report states.

COP23: Alliance pledges an end to coal; other key summit goals unmet
- As COP23 comes to a close in Bonn, 19 nations including Canada and the United Kingdom agreed to stop using coal to generate power by 2030.
- Major coal producing and using nations, including Australia, India, Germany and the United States, did not join in the new Global Alliance to Power Past Coal.
- Participants in COP23 find it to have largely been a disappointment, with developed nations failing to promise to ramp up their Paris carbon emission reduction targets – vital if the world is to stop a catastrophic rise in temperatures above 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Likewise, efforts to find clear pathways by which developed nations will raise the tens of billions needed for vulnerable developing nations to deal with climate change were blocked – primarily by the United States. Now, policymakers are putting their hopes on COP24 in Katowice, Poland, in December 2018.

Government revokes 406 mining permits in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan
- Local authorities have revoked 406 coal-mining permits in East Kalimantan province, with another 403 permits to be revoked in the future.
- East Kalimantan is the heart of Indonesia’s coal-mining industry, with over half of the province’s land area allocated for mining concessions.
- The revocation is a part of a nationwide effort to stamp out irregularities in the the country’s mining sector, which has long been plagued by corruption, legal violations, and environmental and social damage.

COP23: Trump team leads ‘surreal’ coal-gas-nuke climate summit panel
- The only U.S. presentation to be offered at the COP23 climate summit was led by Trump administration energy advisors, along with coal, natural gas and nuclear industry representatives.
- The panel argued that fossil fuel production at high, subsidized levels is vital to “energy security and economic development.” Panel members made only infrequent references to climate change, and they made no mention of the dire impacts from burning fossil fuels.
- The presentation was likely one of the most uproarious in the history of COP. Two U.S. state governors burst in at the start to give impromptu speeches, attacking Trump’s climate denialist policies.
- A memorable highlight occurred when a chorus of young people arose en masse during the panel’s opening remarks, and to the tune of Lee Greenwood’s patriotic hit “God Bless the USA” sang: “So you claim to be an American. But we see right through your greed.” Their song lasted seven minutes, after which they peacefully departed the hall.

Indonesia coal power push neglects rural households, chokes urban ones
- The Indonesian government’s push to generate an additional 35 GW of electricity capacity by 2019 relies heavily on building new coal-fired power plants.
- Observers say the program focuses too much on the already saturated Java-Bali grid, while ignoring millions of households in more remote areas.
- The preference for generating power from coal could also threaten the health of up to 30 million people living in areas slated for power plant construction, a recent study from Greenpeace says.

Is Bangladesh’s expanded sanctuary a brave step or a paper tiger?
- The government’s decision increases the proportion of the Bangladesh Sundarbans that is off-limits to people from 23 to 52 percent, although pollution from a proposed coal power plant nearby would be an ongoing risk.
- Locals living near the forest have minimized the number of tigers killed in conflict with humans by forming response teams that ward tigers away from villages.
- Policy tailored to addressing the myriad reasons for tiger killing would have even more success in reversing the decline of the Bengal tiger, research suggests.

Activists spy silver lining as officials warn of financial clouds over coal-fueled grid
- Indonesia’s state-owned power utility PLN has recently reported a slowdown in annual sales, suggesting that electricity demand is not rising as expected.
- With slow sales, rising costs and financial obligations elevating PLN’s risk, senior government officials have called on the company to scale back plans to expand the country’s electricity infrastructure.
- Green activists view this as an opportunity to renew calls to halt building of planned coal-fired power plants and switch to renewable energy.

Lawsuits test local governments’ ability to clean up Indonesia’s coal mining sector
- A government commission in 2014 found that thousands of mining permits did not meet Indonesia’s legal standards.
- Some local governments have moved to shut down violating companies. In one province, South Sumatra, companies are fighting back in court.
- So far, 10 companies have sued to get their permits reinstated. Five have succeeded.

The financial case against coal power in Indonesia
- A recent report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) warns that Indonesia’s coal-based electricity strategy risks wasting $76 billion over the next 25 years.
- IEEFA is among a small group of non-profits focusing on the economics of fossil fuels, rather than emphasizing environment and public health concerns.
- Indonesia, a major coal producer, relies heavily on large, fossil-fueled power plants for electricity, but there are some signs that policymakers are increasingly open to developing small-scale and renewable options.

Renewable energy to power 139 countries? Scientists say it’s possible
- The research looked at the impacts of a 100-percent switch to renewable energy in 139 countries by 2050 on the climate, as well as air pollution and the economy.
- They calculated that the transition to wind, solar and hydropower will generate around 24 million net jobs.
- Switching to renewable sources of energy that don’t emit carbon into the atmosphere will also save trillions of dollars in the costs we would otherwise incur due to air pollution and the changing climate.

Indonesian coal firms shut down for violations fight back in court, with mixed results
- Indonesian authorities have revoked or not renewed more than 2,100 mining licenses that fail to meet legal standards.
- In South Sumatra province, where 77 licenses were canceled, 10 coal mining firms have sued local officials for taking away their permits.
- So far, one lawsuit has succeeded, while four other companies have failed to get their licenses reinstated.
- The legal challenges in South Sumatra underscore the difficulties officials face as they try to clean up Indonesia’s mining sector.

Shipping companies face criminal charges after coal barges damage reef in Indonesian marine park
- In two separate incidents this winter, five coal-carrying vessels ran aground on reefs in Central Java’s Karimunjava National Park.
- The boats were given permission to take shelter in the area during storms, but broke loose from their moorings, damaging 1,400 square meters of coral.
- Officials are pressing charges of gross negligence and seeking financial compensation.
- These incidents preceded a March case in which a cruise ship ran aground on a reef in Raja Ampat in eastern Indonesia.

Coal undermines Indonesia’s food production: report
- Analyzing government spatial planning maps, researchers for the Waterkeeper Alliance and the Mining Advocacy Network found that 19 percent of Indonesia’s rice-growing land falls within exploration or mining concessions for coal.
- The study calculated that coal mining already costs the country 1.7 million tons of potential rice production, and another 6 million tons of current production are under threat.
- Loss of agricultural productivity is due to land-use change and contamination of water used for irrigation.

Indonesian coal mining firm gets its license reinstated despite a history of violations
- The governor of Indonesia’s South Sumatra province revoked PT Batubara Lahat’s coal mining license after the company was found to owe the government more than $2 million.
- On June 8, an administrative court overturned the governor’s decision.
- Nationwide, more than 2,100 mining licenses have been revoked or not been renewed following investigations into their legality, resulting in multiple lawsuits.
- Activists fear this verdict could have wider repercussions.

Governor halts work on coal railway being built without permits in Indonesian Borneo
- During a field visit to Katingan Regency in Central Kalimantan, Mongabay-Indonesia observed that developers of a coal-transport rail line had already cleared forest land and constructed around two kilometers of track.
- Government sources confirmed the developer did not have the necessary permits to begin work on the project.
- On May 23, the Central Kalimantan governor announced that work on the project had been suspended, although he did not signal any intent to initiate law-enforcement actions against the developer.

Vietnam makes a big push for coal, while pledging to curb emissions
- Vietnam’s current energy plan calls for more than half of electricity production to come from coal by 2030, compared to around a third as of 2015.
- In the same time period, Vietnam has also pledged to reduce emissions by 25 percent compared to business-as-usual.
- Any reforms will require substantial changes to the country’s electricity sector, a tall order for a state-run industry that is notoriously slow to evolve.

Who owns Indonesia’s deadly abandoned coal mines?
- More than 630 open-pit coal mines have been left behind by mining companies in East Kalimantan. These holes have claimed the lives of at least 27 people, mostly children
- Indonesian law requires companies to fill in their mining pits, and prohibits mining within 500 meters of houses. However, these regulations are frequently violated.
- Mongabay-Indonesia spent months investigating the true scope of the problem, and the individuals responsible for these violations.

Papua New Guinea moves to launch new coal mining industry
- Two years ago, the Papua New Guinea government allocated $3 million for research into the viability of coal extraction.
- An Australian company plans to build three mixed coal power generation plants in the country.
- Proponents argue affordable and reliable electricity is needed to boost economic growth, while opponents cite environmental risks including the threat of climate change and rising sea levels.
- Analysts also question how much urban-based power plants will raise electrification rates, since most un-electrified households are in rural areas that cannot easily be connected to electrical grids.

It’s time for the insurance industry to unfriend coal (commentary)
- Insurance companies are supposed to protect us from catastrophic risks, and climate change is certainly the most serious risk that human society is facing. In spite of this, the insurance industry plays a critical role in enabling climate-destroying coal projects.
- Burning coal for energy is the single biggest contributor to manmade climate change, yet more than 1,000 coal-fired power plants are currently in the planning cycle or under construction around the world.
- In spite of their climate awareness and self-interest, insurance companies continue to be highly involved in financing coal and other fossil fuel projects.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Facing oversupply, Indonesia scales back its coal-based electricity plan
- In 2014, Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced plans to generate an additional 35,000 megawatts of electricity by 2019, much of it to be fueled by coal.
- Last month, energy minister Ignasius Jonan said only 15,000 additional megawatts will be required by 2019.
- Jonan cited lower-than-expected economic growth, leading to lower energy demand.

Coal miners owe the Indonesian government hundreds of millions of dollars
- After policies of decentralization gave regional governments more control over the mining sector, the number of permits issued exploded.
- A countrywide investigation into Indonesia’s mining sector revealed that 2,522 mining permits do not fulfill clean and clear standards.
- Investigations have revealed the government is owed $380 million in mining royalties.
- Collecting remaining arrears proves challenging, as basic details about mining companies in arrears, including where offices are located – or if they exist at all – remain missing from government permit data.

Indonesian court revokes environmental license for the Cirebon coal plant expansion
- An Indonesian administrative court ruled that expansion plans for the Cirebon coal-fired power plant in West Java are in violation of the local spatial planning law.
- The court ordered the project’s environmental license be revoked, without which development should not be able to continue.
- The verdict came one day after a consortium of lenders, led by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), committed to providing $1.74 billion in project financing.
- Local and international environment activists have protested the expansion plans for years, and the project is currently the subject of a civil suit.

From black gold to wind and solar: How China is turning its back on coal
- Coal helped power China’s industrial boom, but at a heavy price: the country is now the world’s largest carbon emitter and many cities suffer dangerous pollution levels.
- Economic changes and policies that take into account pollution and climate change are driving a shift away from coal.
- China’s coal consumption has fallen for three consecutive years.

In post-revolution Egypt, a fierce fight over coal imports
- In the wake of the 2011 revolution, persistent energy shortages prompted Egypt’s government to consider overturning a long-standing ban on coal imports.
- The move was backed by industry groups, particularly the cement industry, but opposed by health and environment activists. This split between interests was echoed at the cabinet level, creating a rare public debate over policy.
- In 2014, Egypt’s cabinet voted to allow coal imports for industrial use. The law was amended again in 2015 to allow coal-fired power plants.
- Now, economic factors are swinging the pendulum away from coal again, and planned projects have been suspended.

Al Gore and Bangladesh PM spar over coal plants in the Sundarbans
- Bangladesh is building two large power plants just upstream from the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest and UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- According to government officials, the power plants are intended to bolster Bangladesh’s meager energy reserves.
- The project has attracted criticism from concerned citizens in Bangladesh and around the world, as well as scientists and UNESCO, who say the plants will jeopardize human and ecological health.
- At the January 2017 session of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Al Gore and Sheikh Hasina disagreed about the project’s potential environmental consequences.

Thousands of anti-coal activists march in Jakarta, deliver complaints to anti-graft agency
- Around 2,000 people, including convoys from communities affected by coal mining and coal-fired power plants, marched in Jakarta on March 23.
- A delegation from the protest was received by Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), where they presented reports on cases of alleged corruption.
- Demonstrators also rallied in solidarity with farmers from Kendeng, West Java, who have encased their feet in cement and are staging a sit-in to protest the construction of a cement factory in the Kendeng karst mountain area.

Downstream from a coal mine, villages in Indonesian Borneo suffer from water pollution
- East Kalimantan, in Indonesian Borneo, hosts rare expanses of biologically rich tropical rainforest. It also has rich deposits of coal — according to Greenpeace data, around 75 percent of the province has been assigned for coal mining.
- PT Indominco Mandiri, a subsidiary of Thai conglomerate Banpu, operates a 25,000-hectare (~62,000-acre) mining concession in East Kalimantan.
- Activists and residents say this mining operation has rendered the water of the Santan River unusable for drinking, irrigation or aquaculture.

Plans to mine coal in South African protected area trigger conservation battle
- In 2016, Indian company Atha-Africa Ventures was given permission to mine coal within the Mabola Protected Environment
- The deal required signatures from South Africa’s mineral resources and environmental affairs ministers. News that both officials had granted their approval was only revealed last month after public information requests by activists.
- Mabola is classified as a Strategic Water Source Area, and conservationists fear underground mining there could pollute or dry up vital fresh water.

Indonesia’s clean coal dreams
- Indonesia’s government has touted clean coal technology as the saving grace for its reliance on this carbon-heavy fuel, but this technology is in its infancy and may not grow quickly enough.
- The term “clean coal” is used to refer to a wide range of technologies that decrease environmental impacts; only the least effective of these technologies are within Indonesia’s reach.
- If developed countries foster these technologies to the point of commercial viability, Indonesia will have a better chance of using them.

Living above a century-old coal fire, Jharia residents pay the price for India’s mining ambitions
- The Jharia coalfields, in India’s Jharkhand state, contain high-grade coal and have been continuously mined since 1894.
- The first underground fire was recorded in 1916. By the 1970s, around 17.32 square kilometers (6.68 square miles) were affected by fires. Mine executives say that has now been reduced to around 2.18 square kilometers.
- More than 100,000 families are affected by the fires and need to be relocated.
- Doctors say the average life expectancy of people living in the coalfields is reduced by 10 years, due to air and water pollution.

Japanese, Singaporean banks finance controversial Indonesian coal plant
- The financial close for the Tanjung Jati B coal-fired power plant expansion was announced on Feb. 27 by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. Funding will be provided by eight Japanese and Singaporean banks.
- The $3.36 billion loan will finance the construction of two new 1,000 megawatt units at the plant, which is located in Central Java.
- The project has been the target of years of protests from both international and local activists, and two French banks backed out of the co-financing deal.

Grief, anger and fear in the aftermath of a deadly coal-mining disaster in Jharkhand State, India
- On Dec. 29, 2016, the Lalmatia coal mine’s massive overburden dump collapsed into the pit, killing 23 workers — including five whose bodies have still not been recovered.
- Workers claim they reported warning signs to management ahead of the disaster but were ignored. In the days following the collapse, inspection authorities said Lalmatia was not fit for mining.
- The mine is under the umbrella of government-owned Coal India Limited, but production was outsourced to a private company.
- India aims to ramp up its coal production to one billion tonnes per year, with “large scale contract mining” expected to play a major role in reaching this goal.

Indonesia’s last stand for a coal industry in peril
- Environmental advocacy has significantly diminished the coal industry in many countries, and pressure is now focused on places like Indonesia where coal remains relatively strong.
- Indonesia is one of the world’s biggest exporters of thermal coal, and its two main customers, China and India, are the world’s biggest importers. As China and India scale back on coal use, Indonesia is trying to boost its domestic coal industry.
- Analysts say financing a domestic boost in coal will be hard, in part because foreign financiers are being pressured by environmental groups to pull out.

Investors learning to pay heed to community land rights
- Most conflicts besetting private investments in Africa – 63 percent – relate to pushing people off their lands.
- These conflicts affect agriculture, mining, and even green energy investments.
- In Southern Africa, 73 percent of conflicts turned violent and 73 percent halted work on the developments.

These Indonesian villages are powered by locally sourced sustainable energy
- An estimated 1.6 million poor households in Indonesia are not connected to the electricity grid.
- Indonesia’s national energy plan, which targets 35,000 megawatts of new generating capacity, relies primarily on coal and other fossil fuels.
- In rural, off-grid areas, the government has shown more support for renewable energy generation, but progress remains slow.
- In the meantime, villages like Reno on Flores Island have built their own small-scale renewable energy sources.

In response to pollution complaints, a coal plant in Indonesia offered soap and mops
- Since construction began on the Pacitan coal-fired power plant, locals have complained of diminished fish stocks, damaged infrastructure, pollution and unfulfilled promises.
- These complaints have resulted in a series of meetings between community leaders and plant management. After the most recent meeting, the plant tried to appease villagers by delivering cleaning supplies the villagers could use to remove coal dust from their own homes.
- The company says its interactions with villagers are guided by principles of corporate social responsibility. It also maintains that its operations have not affected water quality.
- This is the final article in a series on Pacitan originally published on Mongabay’s Indonesian-language site.

Efforts to conserve sea turtles disrupted by coal plant in East Java
- Fuel for the Pacitan coal-fired power plant is brought by sea-going barges, which pass through turtle breeding areas.
- Conservation areas near the power plant provide nesting sites for green, hawksbill and olive ridley sea turtles. Local conservationists say the presence of coal barges — and several spills — reduces the number of hatchlings.
- Villagers say the river near the power plant is now empty of the fish and shrimp that once formed a regular part of the local diet.
- This article is the second in a series on Pacitan originally posted on Mongabay’s Indonesian-language site.

Pacitan villagers say coal plant reduced livelihoods, brought little new employment
- The 630-megawatt Pacitan coal-fired power plant began construction in 2007 and came online in 2013.
- Local fisherman say their catch has fallen dramatically since the project was launched, forcing them to fish much further offshore and causing conflict with the plant.
- People whose livelihoods have suffered say they have not received sufficient compensation, and that the plant offers little in the way of alternate employment for locals.
- This is the first article in a series on Pacitan originally published on Mongabay’s Indonesian-language site.

World Bank loans support high-carbon development in Indonesia: report
- A report by the nonprofit Bank Information Center analyzed the World Bank’s Development Policy Finance (DPF) operations in four countries: Indonesia, Peru, Egypt and Mozambique
- The Bank’s climate policies state that DPFs should be used to support countries in meeting their global climate change commitments.
- In Indonesia, DPF-backed programs were found to support the development of coal-fired power plants and roads in sensitive forest areas. Similar patterns were found in the other countries studied.
- The study addresses policy financing, not direct World Bank funding of individual projects.

Police clash with protesters marching against power plant in Bangladesh
- The protesters were showing their disapproval of a new coal-fired power plant currently under construction.
- Injuries were reported, with estimates varying from five to 50.
- Critics of the project say it poses threats to the nearby Sundarbans mangrove – the largest mangrove forest in the world – as well as to the health of thousands of local residents.
- The Bangladeshi government is supporting the project and insists it poses no danger.

As construction begins on Java’s Batang coal plant, a divided community faces environmental problems
- The 2,000-megawatt Batang coal-fired power plant has been billed as the largest project of its kind in Southeast Asia, and is part of a larger plan to add 35,000 megawatts of power to Indonesia’s grid.
- Batang villagers who oppose the plant allege they have faced human rights abuses.
- As preliminary construction begins, local fishers claim their catch has been reduced.
- As a model project for public-private partnerships in Indonesia, the Batang plant enjoys robust government support.

Southeast Asia’s coal boom could cause 70,000 deaths per year by 2030, report says
- A Harvard University-led research study analyzed the health impacts of existing and planned coal-fired power plants in Southeast Asia, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
- The researchers found that air pollution from coal-fired power plants in the area of study currently causes around 20,000 premature deaths per year.
- If all planned coal projects are constructed, that figure could rise to 70,000 deaths per year by 2030.
- Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Myanmar would be most affected.

Thousands hold ‘Global Protest Day’ to support world’s largest mangrove forest
- At more than 10,000 square kilometers, the Sundarbans is the world’s biggest mangrove area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- It is home to hundreds of species of plants and animals, provides important ecosystem services to human communities, and sequesters millions of tons of carbon.
- A 1,320-megawatt, coal-fired power plant is being built just upriver from the Sundarbans, and critics say it threatens the mangrove as well as human health. UNESCO has urged its cancellation and relocation.
- On Saturday, January 7, an estimated 4,000 people held rallies in cities around the world protesting the power plant and urging increased protection of the Sundarbans.

French bank backs out of financing Indonesian coal plant
- The developers of Tanjung Jati B, a 2,640 megawatt coal-fired power station in Central Java, plan to add an additional 2,000 megawatts of capacity.
- In order to meet climate-change commitments, Société Générale, a French bank that had planned to help finance the plant’s expansion, pledged to cease funding coal-related projects.
- Attention has now turned to the project’s remaining financiers, France’s Crédit Agricole and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.

The year in tropical rainforests: 2016
- After 2015’s radical advancements in transparency around tropical forests between improved forest cover monitoring systems and corporate policies on commodity sourcing, progress slowed in 2016 with no major updates on tropical forest cover, resistance from several governments in releasing forest data, and some notable backtracking on zero deforestation commitments.
- But even without the pan-tropical updates, we know that deforestation increased sharply in the Brazilian Amazon, which accounts for the world’s largest area of tropical forest.
- Low commodity prices may have bought some relief for forests.

Lessons from the $2 billion coal mining lawsuit against Indonesia
- An international arbitration panel ruled that Indonesia was not liable for damages sought by Churchill Mining, whose mining license was revoked by local officials.
- The tribunal determined that 34 documents relating to Churchill’s mining concession in Kalimantan were forged, pointing to Churchill’s local partner as the most likely culprit.
- Indonesia prevailed in court, but the verdict is an indictment of corruption and poor management by Indonesian officials as well as mining companies.

The media megaphone: does it help curb bad infrastructure projects?
- A tsunami of infrastructure development is putting global ecosystems, wildlife and indigenous people at risk; with 25 million kilometers of new roads planned by 2050, most in the developing world. Add pipelines, hundreds of dams on the Amazon, Mekong and other river systems, with their electricity used often by mega-mining projects.
- As in the past, this tidal wave of construction is being heavily backed by national governments, greatly benefiting industry and international investors, often at the cost of indigenous peoples, rural communities, wildlife and habitat. Government and industry typically have large public relations budgets to promote such projects.
- Many conservationists trying to mitigate the harm of ill-advised projects, or even see them canceled, are relying heavily on the media to achieve their aims. There is precedent for such a strategy: media coverage has historically played a key part in curbing some of the most ambitious of international mega-infrastructure projects.
- As infrastructure development rapidly accelerate, today’s environmentalists are utilizing all the media tools at their disposal — ranging from traditional newspapers and television, to Twitter, Facebook, blogs and YouTube — to shine a light on poorly designed infrastructure projects and inform and engage the public.

Indonesia shifts emissions-reduction burden from energy to forestry sector
- Ahead of the UN climate summit in Paris last year, Indonesia pledged to reduce its emissions growth by 29 percent over business-as-usual levels by 2030, or by 41 percent with adequate international aid.
- Previously, the government had announced that the lion’s share for meeting the commitment would fall on the coal-dependent energy sector.
- Ahead of the latest climate summit in Morocco, however, Indonesia announced a shift in the breakdown that would see the forestry sector carry the heaviest load.

Protests against Bangladesh power plant begin in Dhaka and Cambridge
- On November 24, activists in Bangladesh began a ‘March towards Dhaka’, demanding the cancellation of the proposed coal-fired Rampal power plant, slated to be built very close to the Sundarbans.
- Members of Bangladesh’s National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources, Power and Ports will reach Dhaka on Saturday where they are expected to hold a grand rally at the Central Shaheed Minar.
- In solidarity with the protests in Bangladesh, students from Cambridge University in the U.K. will also hold a rally tomorrow.

Pledging to reduce emissions while expanding its power grid, Indonesia walks a fine line
- On October 19, Indonesia’s parliament ratified the Paris Agreement.
- During the Paris climate conference, Indonesian President Joko Widodo pledged to reduce emissions to 29 percent below the “business as usual” baseline by 2030.
- Indonesia aims to add 35,000 megawatts of power to its existing national grid by 2019, a plan that calls for building 117 new coal-fired power plants.
- Slower-than-expected progress in its grid expansion plan may help Indonesia meet emissions targets, for now.

UNESCO urges Bangladesh to cancel or relocate Sundarbans coal plant
- The Rampal power plant, slated to be built very close to the Sundarbans in Bangladesh, has been heavily criticized for its potential environmental risks.
- A UNESCO mission visited the site of the Rampal power plant, locations of several of the most recent ship accidents in the region, and met with several experts, and identified four major concerns related to the plant’s construction.
- The report concludes that the Rampal project will damage the Sundarbans and should be “cancelled and relocated to a more suitable location.”

World Bank money is helping to finance Asia’s coal boom: report
- A report by human rights groups identified 41 new coal projects with ties to the World Bank Group. These projects are funded by private banks and companies that have received loans and investment from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group.
- The World Bank Group has restricted funding for coal projects since 2013, and its president has recently made strong statements against coal power.
- Among the projects with IFC links are controversial coal fired power plants like the Mahan plant in India, the Lanao Kauswagan power station in the Philippines and the Rampal coal plant in Bangladesh.
- IFC maintains it has no direct exposure to coal projects, and does not provide intermediaries with funds for the purpose of financing coal projects.

Laws alone don’t stop companies from abandoning deadly mine pits in Indonesia
- Indonesian law requires resource extraction companies to manage and pay for post-mining reclamation.
- The law is poorly enforced, and many coal mining sites are abandoned without reclamation or even basic safety precautions.
- Officials say they lack the resources to tackle the problem effectively.
- Twenty-five children have died in abandoned mining pits in Indonesia.

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