Climate Change

In the lead up to this weekend’s G7 Leaders’ Summit in Hiroshima, Germany has been exposed for joining Japan in pushing fellow G7 members to backslide on previous commitments and endorse increased public investments in gas. Contrary to what Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz says, different studies show that new investments in gas are not necessary to increase energy security but only exacerbate the climate crisis and threaten food security. Chancellor Scholz risks undermining a successful G7 Summit regarding climate for the second year.

Following the release of their ‘Instrument Methods’ for Paris alignment, the World Bank Group published accompanying sector notes for Energy and Extractives; Agriculture and Food; Transport; Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy; Water; as well as Urban, Resilience, Disaster Risk Management, and Land. The notes detail the approach to assess whether different types of projects in these sectors are aligned with the Paris Agreement. The World Bank Group will update the notes, and will publish six more for additional sectors. In this blog we look at whether the approaches in the notes are sufficient to avoid financial flows that conflict with the Paris Agreement.

To take advantage of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) and other financing opportunities, Indonesia must identify key requirements to create the right environment for cooperation without violating existing principles. Our background paper provides a brief overview of the state of the energy transition plan and financing in Indonesia.

In a series of dialogues with Indonesian civil society organisations (CSOs), Germanwatch and the Habibie Center explored how to integrate social justice aspects into the energy transition debate in Indonesia. This policy brief provides the context for how Indonesian CSOs view the JETP and how they relate to other key socio-economic issues.

The World Bank Group (WBG) has published the first set of documents beginning to detail how they will align their investments with the Paris Agreement – the so-called “Paris Alignment Methodology”. The publication of these methodologies is a long overdue first step to deliver on the commitment to align the WBG operations with the goals of the Paris Agreement. They will need to be strengthened and clarified to fully align the WBG investments with the Paris Agreement.

On Friday, 10 March 2023, the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) adopted its conclusions on climate and energy diplomacy for this year, entitled: ‘Bolstering EU climate and energy diplomacy in a critical decade’. In this blog post, we present the key priorities to which the Council agreed and highlight the areas where the EU needs to provide more clarity and increase its ambition.

The emerging polycrisis is challenging governments and institutions around the world. Especially countries in the Global South lack the financial capacity to address the current challenges and simultaneously prepare their nations for the impacts of climate change. The existing international financial architecture has so far been unable to provide the necessary financial resources.There are three major reform proposals that address different institutions within the international financial architecture. This primer introduces the proposals presented and provides an overview of the main institutions and actors involved in the process in Germany.

Indonesia's Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) is one of the outcomes of the G20 Summit that Indonesia hosted in 2022. The partnership is an agreement between Indonesia and the countries of the International Partners Group (IPG). It aims to mobilise finance for Indonesia to decarbonise and phase out the construction and operation of coal-fired power plants. The Indonesia Research Institute for Decarbonisation (IRID) and Germanwatch hosted a focus group discussion with CSOs including relevant research institutions on 18 January 2023 in Jakarta. The discussion was held to obtain feedback and input from CSOs working on topics related to the JETP.

Fossil fuel subsidies have long been a subject of discussion for the G20. As one of the G20 countries, Indonesia needs to prepare for the removal and redirection of fossil fuel subsidies without creating long-term negative impacts, especially in socio-economic terms. The Indonesia Research Institute for Decarbonisation (IRID) and Germanwatch confirm the need for G20 countries to reduce and shift fossil fuel subsidies. As this requires the readiness of G20 developing countries, on 19 January 2023, IRID and Germanwatch hosted a group discussion focused on Indonesia.

In 2022, Indonesia had the opportunity to host the annual G20 Summit, where the energy transition played a major role. The summit produced two key documents on energy, namely the Bali Roadmap and the Bali Compact. Both documents are expected to serve as a reference for G20 countries to achieve a just energy transition, even after Indonesia’s G20 presidency. The Indonesia Research Institute for Decarbonization (IRID) and Germanwatch acknowledge that this is important in order to avoid that dialogues at the G20 Summit start from scratch. For this reason, a focus group discussion took place in Jakarta on 25 January 2023. The discussion was limited to invitees.