Attending IEA Meeting, Minister of EMR Confirms Strategic Commitment to Develop Renewable Energy

MINISTRY OF ENERGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES

REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA

PRESS RELEASE

NUMBER: 169.Pers/04/SJI/2020

Date: 26 April 2020

Attending IEA Meeting, Minister of EMR Confirms Strategic Commitment to Develop Renewable Energy

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (EMR), Arifin Tasrif, on Friday (24/4) evening attended the International Energy Agency (IEA) Ministerial Roundtable on Economic Recovery Packages with a Focus on Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The meeting was initiated by Danish Minister for Climate Change, Energy, and Utility, Dan Jorgensen, and discussed ways to handle the impacts of the COVID-19 on the energy sector, energy efficiency, and renewable energy.

The virtual meeting was attended by Executive Director of IEA, Fatih Birol, and energy ministers from countries such as Canada, France, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, India, Finland, Italy, and the Netherlands.

Minister Arifin at the meeting expressed the Indonesian government's warm welcome to IEA's support and the cooperation between its member countries in an effort to secure the energy supplies during the Covid-19 pandemic. All IEA members play a role in promoting the economic recovery to go together with the handling of the health crisis. The minister also believes that the energy sector has a central role in restoring to maintaining the economic stability of a country. Therefore, investment in New, Renewable Energy (NRE) must be strengthened. This is the key reason the Indonesian government has been actively involved in IEA.

"Indonesia has responded firmly to the COVID-19 crisis, but we do not turn our priority away from energy management. This IEA's meeting shows that the priority to handle the crisis and the energy management can go together. Indonesia believes that energy is the key to economic development, and that energy management must function as the backbone of economic stability towards recovery. For this reason, Indonesia is strengthening the policies to support renewable energy investment and to increase energy efficiency in cooperation with IEA," said Minister Arifin.

The government has continued to create an attractive investment climate to realize an NRE target of 23% in 2025. In particular, IEA Executive Director, Fatih Birol, had also sent a letter expressing the organization's support to Minister of EMR for the policies and strategic measures made by the Indonesian government to realize this target. IEA also invited Minister Arifin to attend the Clean Energy Transition Summit to be held in July.

The virtual meeting was also attended by several ministerial-level officials from international organizations, such as Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Commissioner for Energy of the European Commission, Ambassador/Permanent Delegation of Australia to the OECD, Director General of IRENA, and General Secretary of International Trade Union Confederation. (IY)

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