Is Indonesia Ready for New Technology in Reducing CO2 Emission?


smoke-654072_960_720Green house gases (GHG) emission is one of the environmental issues that hasn’t been resolved and continued to increase annually. Carbon dioxide gas is known as the largest contributor for GHG emissions. This environmental issue also happens in Indonesia as a developing country which has focused on sustainable development. In 2020, the total emission of carbon dioxide gas in Indonesia is predicted around 960 million ton if there is no mitigation action.

Developed and developing countries are still looking for the effective technology to answer the emission issue. The carbon dioxide gas emission has to be reduced because if there is no immediate action, the impact is not only effected to the amount of emission itself in air but also to the health issue on human. If the air is heavily contaminated, people who live on that environment will get a health problem.

In the last fifteen years, researchers who focus on cleaner energy are looking for the effective technology which can lower the level of the CO2 emission. Developed countries have landed their first step to mitigate their emission of CO2 gas by using Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Technology. This kind of technology could effectively reduce the amount of CO2 emission in large-scale.

Indonesia is aware to the carbon dioxide gas emission issue. There are a few technologies that have been  used to reduce the emission, such as: using the alternative energy which produce cleaner emission than CO2, using a cleaner technology (in transportation), reducing the use of fossil fuel, etc. Carbon capture and storage technology is still new in Indonesia, and there is no enough information and study on it. The researcher in Universitas Indonesia (majoring Industrial Engineering) helps to find the answer to this new technology. Is Indonesia ready for new technology?

The increment of carbon dioxide gas emission keeps increasing annually. Globally, there is a significant difference in incremental of the emission. From 1970 to 2000, the rise of the emission was only 1,3% per year but, from 2000 to 2010, the escalation reaches to 2,2% per year. These circumstances stand on the entire world because the human needs to make a better economy. To fulfill the better economy and life, humans aren’t satisfied. Every single days, there will be a new need from every single human. On that reason, industries grow wild and keep rising every year. Doing their activities, industries occur any kind of emission included the carbon dioxide gas emission, so the increment of carbon dioxide gas emission increases annually.

In developed countries, they have a bold step to mitigate their emission of CO2 gas by using Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology. A post-graduate student from Universitas Indonesia sees the gap in Indonesia. The study and information about CCS, as a new technology to reduce emission, haven’t well developed in Indonesia. Based on the situation, the student tries to do a research of CCS technology implementation in Indonesia using technology assessment method. He spent six months in doing the research in Indonesia.

The objective of the research is to find the criterias and subcriterias for the implementation of carbon capture technology with an adjustment of Indonesia’s condition. Because there is no enough information about the criteria in implementing carbon capture technology, this research could be the opening project for the further research in Indonesia. Through this study, we will seek what the subcriterias are needed to be fulfilled. It will be divided into two main criterias based on economy and environment, and the other supporting criterias are performance and technology innovation.

Data-data on the research used primary and secondary data,. Focus group discussion (FGD) and questionnaire are the main primary data, meanwhile, references from literatures are the secondary data. FGD and questionnaire involved some experts to give their perspectives on this research so the results will be various.

The results suggest the subcriterias that are important in using CCS technology are: the rate of capturing CO2 emission from its technology (for environment criteria) and investment cost of the technology (economy criteria).

The investment cost for the carbon capture technology is big enough, so the implementation itself needs support from the government and other investors. Although there are some challenges in implementing the carbon capture technology, the potential to implement the technology is opened. Indonesia has a big sources for the CO2 emission because there are still many industries using fossil fuel. If the technology applied, it could be a benefit for Indonesia in supporting the sustainable development aligned with the statement (of the government) on reducing CO2 emsision.

This research still needs to be improved, but the results as opening project are promising. Hopefully, there will be other futher  research developed on this field.

This research is conducted by Reinaldo Giovanni and Akhmad Hidayatno

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