Purnomo Yusgiantoro Center (PYC) conducted The Energy Insight (The Ensight) for the second time and it was live-streamed through the official PYC YouTube channel on 24 October 2020. The theme of this event was “Rethinking Energy-Climate Relations in Indonesia.”

Tiza Mafira, the Associate Director of Climate Policy Initiative, and Beni Suryadi, the Project Manager of ASEAN Climate Change and Energy Project (ACCEPT), were invited as main speakers. Tiza highlighted the significant damage that will occur if the climate change issue was poorly managed. The damage varies from coral reef decline, species extinction, food scarcity, social, and economic issues. A carbon pricing scheme can be used as one option that should be used. However, it should be well designed and calculated to enhance climate change mitigation. Meanwhile, Beni emphasised that climate change issues should not only be addressed in the environmental sectors, but also in other related sectors, including energy.

Recalled from the findings of ACE Policy Brief: The Paris Agreement and the Energy Policies of the ASEAN Member States, Beni mentioned that climate change was often classified as an environmental concern to be handled by environmental institutions, separate from the institutions dealing with the energy sector. This creates silos in shaping mitigation policies and measures and undermines their efficacy. Many energy policymakers are aware that the Paris Agreement is meant to mobilise a global effort to combat climate change. However, the majority of them had limited knowledge of the agreement and are unaware of the full definition of the long-term goal and timeframe of the Nationally Determined Contributions. Mostly, only the officials responsible for coordinating climate change policy were able to provide correct definitions. This is because emission reduction is a secondary objective of national energy policy.

As also the recommendation highlighted from the Policy Brief, he mentioned the necessary action to enhance energy-climate policies. Global emissions come from a range of sectors. This means there is no single solution to tackle climate change. Even within the energy sector – which accounts for almost three-quarters of emissions – there is no simple fix. Even if we could fully decarbonise our electricity supply, we would also need to electrify our cooling and road transport. And we would still have emissions from shipping and aviation – which we do not yet have low-carbon technologies for – to deal with.