Indonesia’s coal mining sector could be releasing huge volumes of planet-heating methane that the nation’s top quarriers are neither tracking nor mitigating, according to a report by energy think tank Ember.
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Six of the 10 largest Indonesian coal mining companies, which control half the country’s production, do not publish data on methane output. Ember estimates their climate footprint could be about 60 per cent higher when the unreported emissions are accounted for.
Methane is a by-product of coal extraction, and is allowed to simply vent away in most mines worldwide.
Although carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas causing global warming, more attention has been placed on managing methane in recent years. Methane is a more potent planet-warming gas but dissipates faster, so decreasing its output could help arrest global temperature rise sooner.
The six identified firms are Berau Coal, Bumi Resources, Adaro Energy, Bayan Resources, Baramulti Suksessarana and ABM Investama. The study multiplied their reported coal production by an average emissions factor used by United Nations scientists to derive the methane figures.
The four firms reporting methane data – Indo Tambangraya Megah, Bukit Asam, Kideco Jaya Agung and Golden Energy Mines – have figures that do not quite tally, Ember noted. It found that for each unit of coal, Indo Tambangraya Megah reported a methane output that was seven times greater than that of Golden Energy Mines, and none of the firms reveal the emissions factors used for their calculations.
Image: Ember.
None of the 10 firms have implemented or planned steps to slash methane, even if some have started managing carbon dioxide emissions by using renewable energy and electric vehicles. The study said the omission could hurt their future prospects given growing pressure on polluting firms to decarbonise.
Indonesia is the world’s third largest coal miner, and top exporter of the cheap but pollutive fuel. Domestically, over 60 per cent of electricity is generated from coal.
Coal miners need to assess all emissions sources to better understand investment and operational risks, as methane pricing could in the future feature in Indonesia, Ember said. Such taxes have been implemented in the United States, and will start in the European Union next year.
It is already technically feasible to collect methane from mines to be utilised or destroyed, the report noted, citing examples in Australia, China and the United States.
Ember’s recommendations do not include a call to close coal mines faster.
“We need to understand the local context of Indonesia where more than 150,000 people are dependent on the sector. Directly closing the coal business will negatively impact miners and economic activities in the coal producing regions,” report lead author Dody Setiawan said.
Indonesia’s national and local governments should also help coal mining areas prepare for economic transformation and tap energy transition opportunities, he added.
Still, the Ember study said Indonesian miners need a plan to pivot towards clean energy as coal demand is expected to fall. Indonesia expects production to level out at around 700 million tonnes by 2035, before declining to 250 million tonnes by 2060 – even as it approved a record production quota of 922 million tonnes this year.
The country faces uncertain export prospects with its key partners, Ember added, given China is looking to sideline coal while India is stepping up its own mining output to reduce foreign reliance.
Most of Indonesia’s top-ten miners have dipped their toes into renewable energy, except for Baramulti Suksessarana and Bayan Resources. A few have also gone into electric vehicles or mining critical minerals.
The companies named in the report did not respond to requests for comment.
