Speaker: Dr Pradeep Tharakan, Cliamte Change Specialist, Southeast Asia
Energy and Water Division, Asian Development Bank
Date: Monday, 30 May 2011
Time: 9:30am to 11:00am
Venue: ESI Conference Room
29 Heng Mui Keng Terrace
Block A #10-01
Singapore 119620
Please send us your name, organisation and email address via the ESI website here. For enquiries, please contact Ms. Jan Lui at 65162000.
This seminar will be held under Chatham House rules: “when a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant may be revealed.”
Synopsis
Indonesia’s development prospects in the coming decades will hinge on how it manages the economy-energy-environment nexus. President Yudhoyono has expressed a strong commitment to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 26% by 2020 and up to 41% by 2020 with international assistance. Translating this broad policy statement into definitive action in the near-to-medium term will require a strong analytical base for policy making, clear implementation of guidelines and targets, and a large amount of domestic and foreign financing. Indonesia’s current greenhouse emissions profile is dominated by land-use change, forest degradation and peat fires. However, emissions from the energy sector will increase as Indonesia’s economy grows. If left unchecked, emissions from this sector could overtake emissions from land-use change and forestry in a few decades. For example, from the power sector alone, annual emissions are expected to increase from 123 million tons in 2010 to 256 million tons in 2019 (with 80% coming from coal-fired power plants).
There are several opportunities for lowering energy sector GHG emissions in Indonesia.
These include:
- the expanding the use of geothermal energy for power generation,
- substituting diesel-based electricity in small islands and remote areas with renewable energy, and
- carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the oil and gas sector and coal-fired power sector. However, these opportunities are not being fully realized. A range of technical, policy, institutional and financial barriers continue to stymie the expansion of these clean energy technologies.
A 30 minute presentation by Dr. Tharakan will outline trends in energy sector GHG emissions in Indonesia to 2030 and key developments that are taking place within the geothermal, renewable energy and CCS sectors, discuss persistent barriers to expanding clean energy in Indonesia, and highlight some of the domestic and internationally-backed solutions that are being implemented.
About the speaker
Dr Pradeep Tharakan has over 15 years of experience in climate change mitigation, clean energy deployment and natural resources management. In his current position as Climate Change Specialist at the Asian Development Bank, he is responsible for designing and implementing technical assistance activities and loan programs that help deploy and scale up clean energy technologies for mitigation of greenhouse gases. He also oversees innovative studies that evaluate climate change risk assessments within key economic sectors in developing Southeast Asian countries.
Prior to this, Dr. Tharakan served as the Deputy Team Leader for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/ECO-Asia Clean Development and Climate Program, where he was responsible for promoting technologies, practices and policies to scale up clean energy deployment and greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions in six Asian countries. Previously, Dr. Tharakan worked at the Macroeconomic Program Office at the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and also served as a Research Associate with the State University of New York Research Foundation, studying ecological and economic aspects of biomass energy systems, and the supply-dynamics and environmental impacts of fossil fuel systems. His research has been published in several international journals, including Nature, Energy, Energy Policy and Bioscience.
Dr. Tharakan has a PhD in Energy and Resources Management, and masters degrees in Public Policy and Business Administration.
Download Brochure
View Presentation
View Event Photos