Jakarta (Indonesia Window) - The Indonesia government expects a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 314 million tons of carbon dioxide by 2030 at an estimated cost of 3,500 trillion rupiah (about 235.2 billion U.S. dollars).

"Renewable energy-based power plants are expected to contribute in reducing greenhouse gas emissions at least 156.6 million tons of carbon dioxide (or 49.8 percent of the total mitigation action in the energy sector with an investment requirement of 1,690 trillion rupiah (about 113.6 U.S. dollars)," Director of Geothermal at the Directorate General of Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Ida Nuryatin Finahari remarked at a webinar on the Benefits of the Development of the Dieng 2 (55 megawatt) and Patuha 2 (55 megawatt) Geothermal Power Plant Project Development on Wednesday (Aug 19).

In accordance with the ratification of the Paris Agreement at the Conference on Parties (COP) 22 in Morocco in November 2016, Indonesia is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 29 percent by 2030 on its own, and 41 percent with international support.

Ida added, holding back the global average temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius and pressing global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrialization levels would be aligned with the national renewable energy mix of 23 percent by 2025.

"As an effort to achieve the National Energy Policy target, up to the first semester of 2020 Indonesia has 10.4 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy-based power plants. This number is dominated by hydro energy with a composition of around 6.07 GW, followed by geothermal energy of 2.13 GW," Ida noted.

Indonesia's primary energy supply is currently dominated by fossil energy, consisting of coal (37.15 percent), gas (33.58 percent) and petroleum.

Meanwhile, the renewable energy sector in power plants is only around 9.15 percent.

Reporting by Indonesia Window