Cop28: Indonesia, ADB, owners agree to shut coal-fired power station early under climate change plan
- The aim is to close the Cirebon-1 coal-fired power plant almost seven years earlier than planned under the ADB’s Energy Transition Mechanism program
- The ETM program aims to help countries cut their climate-damaging carbon emissions and is in place in Kazakhstan, Pakistan, the Philippines and Vietnam
Indonesia and the Asian Development Bank have agreed a provisional deal with the owners of the Cirebon-1 coal-fired power plant to shut it down almost seven years earlier than planned, the ADB’s senior climate change energy specialist said.
The deal, announced during the Cop28 climate talks in Dubai on Sunday, is the first under the ADB’s Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM) program, which aims to help countries cut their climate-damaging carbon emissions.
Supporting a US$20 billion (HK$156 billion) Just Energy Transition Partnership agreed last year that aims to bring forward the sector’s peak emissions date to 2030, the ADB hopes to replicate it across other countries in the region.
“If we don’t address these coal plants, we’re not going to meet our climate goals,” David Elzinga, the ADB’s Principal Energy Specialist, said on the sidelines of the conference.
“By doing this pilot transaction, we are learning what it takes to make this happen,” Elzinga said. “We’re very much shaping this as something we want to take to other countries.”
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ADB also has active ETM programmes in Kazakhstan, Pakistan, the Philippines and Vietnam, and is considering transactions in two other countries, it said.