BATTLE ON EMISSION REDUCTION CLAIMS

Trend Asia argues that PT PLN's biomass co-firing strategy does not reduce coal utilization and instead increases overall emissions due to deforestation and the carbon-intensive production of wood pellets. The report calculates that implementing 10% co-firing across 107 power plants could generate between 7.9 and 26.5 million tonnes of CO2e annually, depending on the tree species used, while potentially requiring millions of hectares of land for energy timber plantations (HTE).

• PT PLN claims that co-firing biomass with coal in existing and planned power plants allows for a transition to renewable energy and supports a target of 23% renewable energy mix by 2025, even with biomass comprising only 10% of the total fuel.
• Trend Asia estimates that achieving a 10% co-firing level across 107 coal-fired power plants (total capacity of 18.8 GW) would require 10.23 million tonnes of wood pellets annually, necessitating at least 2.33 million hectares of land for energy timber plantations (HTE).
• The development of energy timber plantations (HTE) is likely to cause significant deforestation, as historical data from Map Biomas Indonesia shows that 38% of industrial timber plantation (HTI) coverage in 2019 resulted from natural forest opening.
• Mathematical modeling by Trend Asia indicates that biomass co-firing is not carbon neutral; the loss of carbon stocks from natural forests during HTE development cannot be compensated by the carbon absorbed by the new plantations, resulting in a net emission gap of 6.8 to 11.3 million tonnes of CO2e.
• The total annual emissions from the upstream to downstream process of 10% co-firing in 107 power plants are estimated to range from 7.9 million tonnes CO2e (using lamtoro gung) to 26.48 million tonnes CO2e (using gamal).
• Evidence suggests that biomass is acting as a complement to coal rather than a substitute, as both biomass and coal utilization increased between 2020 and 2021, with coal use rising from 66.68 million to 68.47 million tonnes.

APA

Muhajir, M., Febrian, R., Nagara, G., Saputra, P. A., Damanik, I., Agustiorini, S., Erlina, M. I., Indradi, Y., Nasution, M., & Airlinus, Z. (2022). BATTLE ON EMISSION REDUCTION CLAIMS. Trend Asia. https://trendasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Battle-on-Emission-Reduction-Claims.pdf

Chicago

Muhajir, Mumu, Ramada Febrian, Grahat Nagara, Putut Aryo Saputra, Iqbal Damanik, Sarah Agustiorini, Meike Inda Erlina, et al. BATTLE ON EMISSION REDUCTION CLAIMS. Trend Asia, 2022. https://trendasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Battle-on-Emission-Reduction-Claims.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Muhajir |first1=Mumu |last2=Febrian |first2=Ramada |last3=Nagara |first3=Grahat |last4=Saputra |first4=Putut Aryo |last5=Damanik |first5=Iqbal |last6=Agustiorini |first6=Sarah |last7=Erlina |first7=Meike Inda |last8=Indradi |first8=Yuyun |last9=Nasution |first9=Marina |display-authors=etal |title=BATTLE ON EMISSION REDUCTION CLAIMS |publisher=Trend Asia |date=August 2022 |url=https://trendasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Battle-on-Emission-Reduction-Claims.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{muhajir2022battle, author = {Muhajir, Mumu and Febrian, Ramada and Nagara, Grahat and Saputra, Putut Aryo and Damanik, Iqbal and Agustiorini, Sarah and Erlina, Meike Inda and Indradi, Yuyun and Nasution, Marina and Airlinus, Zamzami}, title = {{BATTLE ON EMISSION REDUCTION CLAIMS}}, institution = {Trend Asia}, year = {2022}, month = aug, url = {https://trendasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Battle-on-Emission-Reduction-Claims.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }