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Short Wave

The $20 Billion Deal To Get Indonesia Off Coal

Short Wave

NPR

News, Life Sciences, Daily News, Nature, Science, Astronomy

4.7 β€’ 6.6K Ratings

πŸ—“οΈ 7 March 2023

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Indonesia is the world's largest exporter of coal for electricity. And it's also an emerging economy trying to address climate change. The country recently signed a highly publicized, $20 billion international deal to transition away from coal and toward renewable energy. The hope is the deal could be a model for other countries. But Indonesian energy experts and solar executives worry much of this deal may be "omong kosong" β€” empty talk. Today, NPR climate solutions reporter Julia Simon breaks down the realities and limitations of Indonesia's renewable aspirations.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

0:05.0

Hey there Shortwaveers, Aaron Scott here and today we have a very special guest for you.

0:12.4

One Julia Simon, NPR's new climate solutions reporter.

0:16.5

Welcome to Shortwave, Julia.

0:17.5

Thanks for having me, Aaron.

0:19.5

I hear you are bringing us a story about climate from Indonesia.

0:24.6

That is right and I'm going to start by showing you this video.

0:28.5

Love us, Tim Show and Tell.

0:30.5

You're seeing all these palm trees.

0:32.7

This is a huge, more than 40,000 acre park.

0:36.3

Okay, massive.

0:37.7

You've got this motorcade running through and that's the Indonesian president, Jokol Widodo.

0:43.8

Sering Sasa Peikan.

0:45.8

Yang Namanya.

0:47.3

And what this is?

0:48.4

This is a green industrial park.

0:50.9

The idea is that this park will make all this stuff for the green transition,

0:55.1

like electric vehicle batteries.

0:57.6

And the ideas it will all run on renewable energy, like hydro power and solar.

1:04.3

Sounds great.

1:05.6

I feel like I'm waiting for a butt though.

1:08.0

Well, here is Rakhmat Kainoudin.

...

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