The Indonesian-Swedish Initiative for Sustainable Energy Solutions (INSISTS) will be working to assist the Indonesian government in developing its renewable energy policy, including reducing the damage to tropical forests caused by excessive development of oil palm plantations.
“Indonesia and Sweden are two countries that have high ambitions to reduce carbon emissions and, therefore, it is really important to focus on renewable energy,” Swedish Ambassador to Indonesia Ewa Polano said in Yogyakarta on Saturday.
She was in Yogyakarta to witness the official inauguration of an INSISTS research department at Gadjah Mada University (UGM).
The research institution has been jointly established by the National Energy Council (DEN) and the Swedish Energy Agency (SEA) under an agreement signed between DEN’s secretary-general, Hadi Prayitno, and SEA director Erik Brandsma.
“INSISTS is the first Swedish-Indonesian research partnership center. Now, we have a representative office in Yogyakarta. This is a great gift from UGM,” Polano said. She added that the research center was the first center for sustainable energy solutions in the whole of Asia.
With INSISTS, it is hoped that Indonesia and Sweden will work together to reduce carbon emissions.
Polano said the partnership would likely be beneficial to Indonesia as Sweden was a country rich in technological innovation. Sweden had also done much to advance its technology, allocating 3.6 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to research and development.
“This makes us an interesting partner for the world,” she said.
Meanwhile, Brandsma said that INSISTS would research several types of renewable energy deemed the most crucial, including biodiesel. “We have a common interest in biodiesel, and Sweden also has a long history in using biodiesel,” he said. (ebf)
Source: Jakarta Post
