TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Head of Financial Services Authority (OJK) Mahendra Siregar revealed that the implementation of carbon exchange in Indonesia is faster than its neighboring countries.

"As a comparison, our neighboring country takes 1.5 to 2 years for the regulators to translate carbon exchange completely into a concrete action," he said during the launch of carbon exchange in IDX today, Tuesday, September 26, 2023.

Mahendra stated that Indonesia was able to implement carbon exchange after only eight months. Additionally, according to the OJK head, Malaysia's carbon exchange first transaction took 3 to 4 months after its release. Meanwhile, Indonesia's first carbon trade occurred on the same day as the carbon exchange launched.

Over 99 coal-fired power plants will potentially participate in the exchange, equal to 86% of the total operating coal plants in this country. "We are hoping that coal plants will start conducting carbon exchange transactions immediately this year," he said.

In addition to power plants, carbon exchange will be participated by the forestry sector, as well as agriculture, waste, mineral and gas, general industry, and marine sectors.

According to Mahendra, Indonesia's carbon exchange will be among the biggest and most important in the world. Mahendra believed this is caused by the volume and variety of carbon traded and its contribution to national and global carbon emissions. "Let's begin the historical and new era today," he said.

Carbon exchange will be conducted gradually in Indonesia, to ensure the quality of carbon units. In the future, the government will implement a carbon tax to support the carbon market.

DEFARA DHANYA PARAMITHA

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