Indonesia announced new and revised energy policies for five widely used appliances — fans, refrigerators, rice cookers, air conditioners, and televisions — that will cut carbon emissions and benefit people by reducing household energy bills.

The AC policies were issued by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) on August 16 and took effect immediately, while the remaining appliances policies were issued on September 20 and will take effect one year from then. The policies represent a significant climate mitigation win for the country. At the initial energy performance levels, the policies will avoid 10.7 million metric tons of CO₂ (MTCO₂) emissions cumulatively by 2030 and 2.1 MTCO₂ annually from 2030 onwards.

Residential energy use in Indonesia has more than doubled over the last decade and is expected to continue growing as the warming climate will increase demand for cooling appliances in particular. The new policies will remove inefficient products from the market, ensuring that appliances included in the scheme carry an energy label to positively impact consumer decision-making, and help the Indonesian power grid keep up with growing demand. Appliance efficiency policy efforts in Indonesia were stalled in past years due to a lack of data, but CLASP’s Residential End-Use Survey, published in 2020, helped create a clearer picture of appliance use and demand.

CLASP supported the MEMR in developing three of these policies by conducting consumer and market research and assessing the potential climate impacts of various policy scenarios. “The cooperation between CLASP and the Directorate General of New and Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation has been a tremendous help on the development of energy efficiency policies in Indonesia,” said Dr. Ir. Hariyanto, M.T., Director of Energy Conservation of Directorate General of New and Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (July 2018 – February 2021) in a statement about the work.

CLASP-Supported Policies

Fans are an important energy-consuming product in Indonesia’s hot and humid tropical climate, offering effective and financially accessible cooling. Last June, CLASP published an end-use survey showing that households operate fans for an average of 6.4 hours per day, leading to high overall energy consumption. The new fan efficiency policy will avoid 6.8 MTCO₂ of emissions from 2023 to 2030, reaching 1.3 MTCO₂ in annual reductions by 2030.

There are 43.4 million refrigerators in use in Indonesia, with about 2.5 million units sold yearly according to 2018 data. Under the new efficiency policy, refrigerator energy performance requirements will be set at a moderate level with projected greenhouse gas mitigation of 1.0 MTCO₂ over the next decade and 0.2 MTCO₂ annually by 2030. Indonesian manufacturers are well positioned to meet more stringent regulations over time, since in addition to serving domestic demand, the industry exports to more than 100 countries including markets like South Korea, Japan, and Australia, where they meet higher efficiency requirements.

Rice is an important element in Indonesian cooking, and the majority of households use a rice cooker on a daily basis. However, there are many unregistered and low-quality models on the market, indicating an opportunity for efficiency policies to reduce overall energy use for climate and consumer benefits. Under the new policy, higher rice cooker efficiency requirements will avoid emissions of 2.9 MTCO₂ over the next decade, growing to 0.6 MTCO₂ annually by 2030.

Looking forward, CLASP will continue to work with MEMR and other stakeholders across a wide range of priorities, including strengthening compliance with the new policies, addressing additional products, and increasing public adoption of super-efficient air conditioners.

Read about CLASP’s Indonesian end-use survey and market research here, and explore our work on cooking and cooling policy.

See DJEBTKE’s Instagram post announcing the new policies.

For media inquiries, please contact Matt Malinowski at mmalinowski@clasp.ngo