President Jokowi Expects Recommendations for Sustainable Energy from World Hydropower Congress

President Jokowi (center) opens the World Hydropower Congress in Bali, Tuesday (10/31). (Photo by: BPMI of Presidential Secretariat/ Muchlis Jr)

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Tuesday (10/31) opened the 2023 World Hydropower Congress held at the Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center (BNDCC) in Bali province. In his opening remarks, President Jokowi expressed hope that the Congress would produce policy recommendations that can be applied to preserve the nature.

“I am thankful for the organization of the 2023 World Hydropower Congress that is held in Indonesia. I hope the beauty of Bali’s nature can inspire the Congress to generate recommendations for a sustainable mother nature since the earth is ‘quite sick’ now,” he said.

According to the President, the United Nations has made a statement that era of global warming has ended but the era of global boiling has arrived. If global temperature rises to more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, disaster will be inevitable.

“Around 210 million people are predicted to experience water scarcity; 14 million populations will be exposed to heat wave, and 290 million houses will sink due to coastal flooding, and 600 million will suffer from malnutrition as the impact of crop failure. These are serious threats for us,” he added.

The Head of State also affirmed Indonesia’s full commitment to speed up energy transition through the development of new and renewable energy on a large scale since Indonesia is rich in green energy potential. Indonesia’s green energy potential reaches 3,600 GW from solar energy, wind power, geothermal, wave power, bioenergy, and hydropower.

Regarding hydropower, Indonesia has more than 4,400 rivers including Mamberamo River in Papua province that has potential hydropower of 24,000 MW and Kayan River in North Kalimantan province that has potential hydropower of 13,000 MW which will become a source of energy in Kalimantan’s Green Industrial Park.

“Once again, this abundant potential can be utilized for the future of the earth and next generations,” he added.

On that occasion, President Jokowi also mentioned that Indonesia is facing some challenges. One of which is related to hydropower sources that are located far from the centers of electricity demand. The Government of Indonesia thus has made a blueprint of the acceleration of transmission line to connect electricity from hydropower sources to economic center and industrial areas.

Other challenges, he added, are funding and technology transfer which require quite huge investment and collaborations with all hydro ecosystem powers in the world.

“I hope that this World Hydropower Congress can become a collaborative forum that produces policy recommendations and increases investment to make use water energy for a sustainable green economy,” he remarked. (BPMI of Presidential Secretariat/DNS) (RAS/MMB)