The three recommendations were agreed upon during the Business 20 (B20) Inception Meeting held virtually at the end of January 2022, as noted in a release issued by PT Pertamina and received here on Thursday.

The Business 20, or B20, is an outreach group from the G20 that represents the international business community.

Chair of B20 Energy, Sustainability, and Climate Task Force Nicke Widyawati emphasized the importance for Indonesia to transition to green energy as mandated by President Joko Widodo.

According to Widyawati, the energy transition effort is a challenge for all, but it should also be viewed as an opportunity to create sustainable economic growth in future by implementing good established scenarios and roadmaps, especially with regard to the financial aspects.

"The B20 Energy, Sustainability and Climate Task Force has the same priorities as Indonesia's G20 presidency in which we must be a strong green energy catalyst and go hand in hand with the principles of energy security, energy equity, and environmental sustainability," Widyawati, concurrently the president director of state-owned oil giant Pertamina, stated.

She further noted that the Task Force will formulate some policy recommendations for sustainable energy transition, with focus on three priority issues.

- First, the Task Force will put forth the recommendation on accelerating transition to sustainable energy use in order to ensure that global warming is limited to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

With regard to such a recommendation, the main efforts identified for the energy transition policy is the development of alternative fuel industries around the use of hydrogen and biofuels.

- The second issue for recommendation is to ensure a fair and affordable way of transition as well as global cooperation on impact mitigation and support for adaptation to changes brought about by energy transition.

- The third is global cooperation in increasing energy security for households and MSMEs as a means to end extreme poverty and accelerate energy transition to sustainable energy use.

"Those three priority issues will form the basis for formulating policy recommendations from the Energy, Sustainability and Climate Task Force by considering other critical issues, such as carbon pricing, global cooperation, livelihoods, and institutional development for financing and technology adoption," Widyawati explained.

She also stated that energy is a binding constraint for sustainable economic growth and is a crucial matter for economic development to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

She also emphasized that urgent and focused action was currently needed to address various global challenges, including the lagging rate of energy transition, climate change due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that have become a critical issue, and economic growth depending on fossil fuel energy consumption that contributed to most of the GHG emissions.

Widyawati also pressed for expediting energy transition globally while continuing to increase energy security and equity in an effort to sustain economic growth and reduce extreme poverty.

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