Indonesia begins mandatory carbon trading for coal power plants hinh anh 1Coal makes up more than half of the Indonesia's power generation (Photo: Reuters)
Jakarta (VNA) - Indonesia on February 22 launched the first phase of mandatory carbon trading for coal-fired power plants, as an effort to boost renewable energy and achieve net zero emissions by 2060.

At present, coal makes up more than half of the country's power generation. The first stage of the carbon trading mechanism will cover 99 power plants with total installed capacity of 33.6 gigawatt directly connected to power grids owned by state utility Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN).

An official from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Mohamad Priharto Dwinugroho said that there are 500,000 tonnes CO2 equivalent ready to be traded.

The figure refers to an estimate of the excess emissions over a total 20 million tonnes CO2 equivalent emission quota given to the power plants.

Under the mechanism, power plants that emit more carbon than their quota can buy carbon credits from plants with below-quota emissions or from renewable power plants.

Indonesia's carbon trade applies to power plants with a capacity of at least 100 MW. However, energy minister Arifin Tasrif said it will later be rolled out to smaller coal plants and other fossil-fueled power plants, as well as power plants not connected to PLN's grid./.

VNA