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Indonesia’s coal burning hits record high

Indonesia burned more coal in 2022 than any other year, a preliminary analysis shows. This puts the country on track to become one of the largest carbon emitters from fossil fuel in the world.

Data from the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources showed that coal consumption amounted to 745.72 million barrels of oil (BOE) in 2022. A 33% increase from 558.78 million BOE in 2021.

The data shows the country’s coal consumption to be the highest ever by a very large margin.

Coupled with other increases in fossil fuel consumption, such as oil (12%) and gas (1.2%), these increases drove Indonesia’s total emissions from fossil fuels to grow by 20.3%.

“None of the world’s top-ten largest emitters has seen growth of 20% in the last 15 years,” said Robbie Andrew, a member of the Global Carbon Project and senior researcher at the Norway-based CICERO Centre for International Climate Research.

In 2021, Indonesia’s emissions from fossil fuels were the ninth largest in the world, according to data from the Global Carbon Project. With the increase in its fossil fuel emissions, Indonesia has become the world’s sixth-highest fossil CO2 emitter.

While Indonesia’s fossil fuel emissions has increased, its fossil fuel emissions per capita, at 2.7 tons, is still much lower than that of the U.S, at 15 tons.

The Ministry of Environment and Forestry’s climate change department did not respond to Mongabay’s request for comment.