LONDON, Nov. 2 (Reuters) – Indonesia could phase out coal-fired power plants by 2040 if it obtains sufficient financial support from the international community, the finance minister told Reuters.

The Southeast Asian archipelago is the fourth most populous country in the world and the eighth emitter of greenhouse gases, with coal accounting for around 65% of its energy mix. It is also the world’s largest exporter of coal.

Visiting the Scottish city of Glasgow for the COP26 conference, Sri Mulyani Indrawati said Indonesia will announce detailed plans to switch to cleaner energy on Wednesday, with coal phasing out the key issue.

Previously, Indonesia had said it plans to phase out coal for electricity by 2056, as part of a plan to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2060 or earlier.

“If we are to move forward to 2040, then we need funding to pull out coal earlier and build the new renewable energy capacity,” Sri Mulyani said.

“This is exactly what has become the central problem and I am now as Minister of Finance calculating what it means to take the coal out sooner. How much is it costing us? ” she said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said last week in the UK parliament that President Joko Widodo had declared that Indonesia would advance the abolition of the use of coal to 2040.

Indonesia had not confirmed such a plan before.

Sri Mulyani told Reuters that achieving such a goal was conditional on securing financial assistance from multilateral institutions, the private sector and developed countries.

She said the plans to be announced on Wednesday moved Indonesia’s climate targets beyond “rhetoric” into technical details and that the Asian Development Bank (AfDB) and other financial institutions were “very excited. With their ideas.

The ADB is leading a group of financial institutions to devise plans to speed up coal-fired power plant closures in Asia, including Indonesia, by buying back assets and liquidating them.

Jakarta has identified 5.5 gigawatts of coal-fired power plants that could be phased out early in the next 8 years, estimating it would cost between $ 25 billion and $ 30 billion.

Sri Mulyani said the country would also need international support to ensure electricity remains affordable when it switches to renewables, citing a temporary calculation of a need of $ 10 billion to $ 23 billion in “implicit subsidies. “for renewable energy projects until 2030.

“If this is all supposed to be funded by my taxpayers’ money, it won’t work. The world is asking us, so now the question is, what can the world do to help Indonesia.”

“The president always says: ‘I will be ambitious if the international (the community) also aligns with this ambition,” “she added.

Reporting by John Geddie; Additional reporting by Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by David Gregorio and Gerry Doyle

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