Indonesia’s methane emissions from coal are 8 times worse than reported, jeopardising climate commitments, think tank says

The world’s third-largest coal miner, after China and India, undercounts methane emissions from production of the fuel, according to analysis
Indonesia neglected to include methane releases from underground reserves. The discrepancies could jeopardise Indonesia’s efforts to meet reduction commitments

Indonesia

BloombergandAgence France-Presse

Published: 10:20am, 12 Mar 2024

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Methane emissions from Indonesia’s expanding coal mining sector are significantly under-reported, jeopardising the nation’s international climate commitments, according to new analysis from energy think tank Ember.

The London-based climate and energy think tank, estimated that based on its studies, Indonesia’s coal mine methane (CMM) pollution is up to eight times higher than official figures.

Indonesia is the world’s third-largest coal miner, after China and India.

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The group said Indonesia was using outdated methods to estimate its emissions, and was also failing to report CCM from underground coal-mining activities, which can be far higher than from surface mining.

And though the country’s last official report to the United Nations used an approved approach that applies an emissions factor to each ton of coal extracted or produced, Ember said that given the nature of the country’s open-cut mines, a higher factor would have been more appropriate.

The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said the agency needs to review the findings, a spokesperson said on Monday, a holiday in Indonesia.

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The discrepancies could jeopardise Indonesia’s efforts to slash releases of the gas and meet emissions reductions commitments under the Global Methane Pledge. More than 150 nations have signed the agreement, vowing to cut methane 30 per cent by the end of this decade from 2020 levels.

Methane is the second-largest contributor to global warming after CO2, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Methane is the primary component of natural gas, but it can also leak during coal production when rock strata or coal seams are fractured and operators routinely vent methane into the atmosphere to reduce health and safety risks for workers. Few mines use available above-ground capture technology.

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To improve accuracy, Indonesia should collect data and analyse emissions from individual mines and distinguish between emissions from underground and surface mines when it reports the releases, according to Ember.

Estimates from satellites and independent analysis suggest that many countries under-report their methane emissions. In 2022, Australia revised its calculations for methane pollution from open-cut coal mines, a change that meant total national annual emissions were on average 0.3 per cent higher than stated for more than 30 years.

Methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide during its first 20 years in the atmosphere, and clamping down on avoidable emissions from fossil fuels is one of the cheapest, fastest ways to avoid levels of climate change that scientists agree would be catastrophic.

Indonesia must plan to monitor its emissions, and improve the accessibility of its coal mining and methane data, to help fully achieve the goals of the Global Methane Pledge

Dorothy Mei, Global Energy Monitor project manager

Activists urged the government to improve its CCM management, identify which regions produced the most CCM, and address the under-reporting of methane pollution.

“Indonesia must plan to monitor its emissions, and improve the accessibility of its coal mining and methane data, to help fully achieve the goals of the Global Methane Pledge,” said Dorothy Mei of Global Energy Monitor (GEM) in a statement.

Hendra Sinadia, executive director of the Indonesian Coal Mining Association (APBI), said the data gap might be caused by a lack of standards in the measurement method, especially from fugitive emissions that are not reported by the companies.

“The measurement is not standardised … especially for the fugitive emissions which has a large contribution,” he said.

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