The UGM Center for Transportation and Logistics Studies (Pustral UGM), in collaboration with the International Transport Forum (ITF) and The World Bank, conducted a study to assist the Indonesian government in identifying an effective and efficient roadmap for decarbonizing urban transportation in Indonesia.
This study aims to develop a model that can identify the impact of each policy and encourage the most impactful investments to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from urban passenger mobility in Indonesia.
After several stages of study, including data collection, analysis, scenario development, and designing a model in Excel-based format, the study team held the Final Stakeholders Workshop, attended by representatives from various institutions.
The goal was to present the findings and lessons from this research and to introduce the designed model and its benefits to relevant policymakers.
The workshop also allowed related institutions to try and operate this tool with direct guidance from the study team.
This is expected to enhance the quality of knowledge transfer and improve the ability to develop several alternative scenarios as needed.
Additionally, the study team hoped to receive final feedback or important comments from stakeholders to refine this study.
The regional workshop was held on Thursday, Jul. 11, 2024, in Jakarta. It was attended by 75 participants from various institutions, including central and local governments, academic institutions, NGOs, think tanks, donor agencies, development partners, and other related organizations.
The workshop consisted of three main sessions.
Session 1 explained the background of the research, methodology, assumptions, processes, and key results that were interesting for discussion.
Session 2 featured a panel discussion on “Sustainable Urban Mobility,” Session 3 included a demonstration of the model’s use and an opportunity for participants to explore and use the tool.
The session concluded with feedback submission and a closing discussion.
Evan Maksum, Deputy for Infrastructure and Facilities at Bappenas, opened the workshop and served as the keynote speaker.
He discussed the Direction of Urban Transportation Development in the Technocratic Design of the 2025-2029 National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN).
According to him, metropolitan urban areas, as engines of growth, face various issues that impact national economic growth.
Data shows that a 1 percent increase in urbanization boosts GDP per capita by 1.4 percent, which is still far behind China (3 percent) and East Asia-Pacific countries (2.7 percent).
He said urban mass transportation systems are still lagging (the public transport market share is <20 percent). The use of private vehicles continues to increase (8 percent per year).
Some strategic issues in urban transportation in Indonesia include increasing energy consumption due to the dominance of fossil fuel use (under a BAU scenario, energy consumption rises by 4.6 percent or fivefold if no intervention occurs), the second largest (26 percent) GHG emissions from the transportation sector after the energy sector, and the highest PM2.5 air pollution in Southeast Asia.
Meanwhile, the policy direction in the 2025-2045 RPJMN targets a 93.5 percent reduction in GHG emissions relative to GDP by 2045 and a reduction in logistics costs from 14.9 percent (2022) to 9 percent (2045) of GDP.
In the transportation sector, major projects have been implemented in six metropolitan areas—Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Makassar, Medan, and Semarang—in the form of sustainable urban mobility plans, metropolitan transportation management institutions, integrated funding schemes, and the integration of public transportation and housing, especially for low-income groups.
“The strategic issue that arises is the lack of a metropolitan transportation institution, the absence of an integrated urban mobility plan, and the limited fiscal capacity of the regions,” he said.
Marwanto Heru Santoso, Head of the Center for Traffic, Transport, and Urban Transportation Policy, revealed that the Indonesian government has ratified the Paris Agreement in Law No. 16/2016 to address climate change, including Presidential Regulation No. 98/2021.
The main focus of these policies is to create a carbon market and carbon price ecosystem with efforts to achieve the Enhanced Nationally Determined Contribution (E-NDC) (a 31.89 percent reduction in GHG emissions through independent efforts and 43.2 percent with international assistance by 2030 under a business-as-usual scenario).
The implementation of transportation sector mitigation actions during the 2015-2022 period reached 3.9 million tons of CO2, which is still insufficient since the transportation sector is the second-largest energy user after the industrial sector. This necessitates hard work to meet national targets.
He stated that the challenges of urban mobility include reliance on conventional fossil-fueled motor vehicles, limited technology and financial resources to develop environmentally friendly transportation, public awareness of using public transport, the absence of performance indicators as tools to monitor urban transportation performance, and the suboptimal support of institutional and regulatory aspects.
“Electric vehicles are a government program that also needs infrastructure support; there are three main aspects: power systems, charging infrastructure, and sustainable battery production. The Ministry of Transportation, as the actor responsible for the transportation sector, is committed to decarbonization efforts in all sectors, such as the development of road-based public transportation, battery-based non-motorized transport, alternative fuel use, and railway construction, including MRT, LRT, and so on,” explained Marwanto Heru.
The World Bank representative Kulwinder Singh Rao, the Transport Coordinator for Indonesia and Timor Leste, stated that Indonesia has a strategic role in the global economy and needs sustainable mobility.
The World Bank is committed to helping Indonesia advance sustainable urban mobility.
ITF and Pustral UGM, with support from the Australian government, collaboratively developed a policy formulation tool to support the decarbonization path through cost-efficient passenger transport in Indonesian urban areas.
The model developed by ITF is used as a strategic tool for decarbonization and investment needs to realize the goals of sustainable urban mobility.
Arif Wismadi, the team leader from Pustral UGM, emphasized that the issues of limited institutional capacity and fiscal capability in urban transportation management should be a focus of planning and policy implementation.
The strategic model developed by ITF can be a tool for measuring the impact of government policies (helping to measure stakeholder interventions) on achieving national targets.
“The World Bank has long been committed and contributed to the development of public transportation in Indonesia, particularly concerned with decarbonization and mode share. Investment in the transportation sector is highly needed, especially towards long-term achievement,” Wismadi said.
Author: Agung Nugroho
Post-editor: Lintang