A coal-powered industrial boom is testing Indonesia’s green ambitions

Large, energy-hungry industrial estates across Indonesia will still run on coal for much of this decade. - PHOTO: REUTERS

JAKARTA: In a heavily forested district in Indonesia’s portion of the island of Borneo, excavators and an army of surveyors are clearing the way for a US$2.6 billion hydroelectric plant, purpose-built to power a vast industrial park - a project lauded by its backers and Jakarta’s government as evidence that economic growth can come with limited carbon cost.

But the reality to support that low-emission ambition lies years in the future.