Belgium – KSBSI President, Elly Rosita Silaban attended the 10th Annual Global Conference on Energy Efficiency on 12-13 June 2025 in Brussels, Belgium.
As a member, Elly Rosita Silaban had the opportunity to attend the International Energy Agency (IEA) Clean Energy Workers Council meeting on the sidelines of the 10th IEA Global Conference.
“Today, the IEA Clean Energy Workers Council Meeting took place on the sidelines of the 10th IEA Global Conference on Energy Efficiency, where this agenda was jointly organized by the IEA and the European Commission.” said Elly Rosita Silaban when contacted by telephone on Friday (13/06/2025) local time.
Elly Rosita explained, that this meeting was open to policymakers attending the Global Conference and representatives from the G20 and COP30 Presidencies, to ensure that workers’ voices were heard in multilateral forums.
“This is an opportunity to present ideas, IEA Clean Energy Working Group papers and members to share their perspectives on ensuring a just clean energy transition.” she explained.
Furthermore, Elly Rosita emphasized that this agenda is a good event and opportunity to exchange ideas on clean energy issues.
“We also get information from representatives of South Africa and Brazil on the progress of G20 and COP30 activities, and interact with policymakers from around the world on the topic of clean energy transition.” said Elly.
Clean Energy Challenges in Indonesia
On that occasion, Elly Rosita also had the opportunity to provide an intervention, she highlighted the challenges towards clean energy in Indonesia.
According to Elly, especially in my home country Indonesia, and also in other countries, the main challenges in the transition to clean energy come from the following factors.
Although many countries like Indonesia have strategies for clean energy, however, the absence of meaningful and inclusive stakeholder involvement has created resistance to change and hampered the adoption of clean energy, especially from regions that are most dependent on their economies on the extractive industry, hesitant to support national policies on clean transitions.
Many regulations focus more on the physical energy transition in the form of energy infrastructure development and have ignored the importance of social and environmental considerations.
Another thing, it should be noted that renewable energy has low operating costs but high capital investment requirements, many developing countries struggle with access to clean energy financing is the reason why many countries continue to rely on fossil fuels, especially with the high demand for essential minerals for electric vehicles.
This has led to the risk of failure of the “just transition”, given that clean energy prices are expensive and unaffordable and inaccessible, including for low-income and rural populations.
In addition, unstable or unclear government policies regarding fossil fuel subsidies have delayed investment in clean energy. A consistent long-term framework is needed to support the clean energy transition.
Finally, threats to the transition also come from those with interests in the fossil fuel sector, such as greedy companies that use political influence to lobby for new permits for the extractive mining industry. The current polemic is about nickel mining exploration on the famous Raja Ampat island, Papua.
The various challenges above can certainly be overcome with strong political commitment from the government and ongoing social dialogue.
As is known, the IEA is an agency that stands within the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which was founded in November 1974 to implement the international energy program.
The IEA carries out comprehensive energy cooperation between 28 countries out of 30 OECD member countries. The basic objectives of the establishment of the IEA include managing and improving the system for dealing with oil supply disruptions.
The IEA also aims to promote rational energy policies in a global context through cooperative relationships with non-member countries, industry, and international organizations.
In addition, the IEA was established to operate a permanent information system on world oil trade. The IEA is responsible for improving the structure of world energy supply and use by developing alternative energy sources and increasing energy savings.
The IEA also promotes international cooperation on energy technology and assists in the integration of environmental policies with energy policies. The IEA member countries are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey. (RED/handi)
