Scotland Makes Energy Efficiency Its Preferred Fuel, Indonesia Announces Renewables Target

Although Scotland has missed its aggressive climate targets in each of the past four years, the government issued a policy to decarbonize heating fuels by 2050. 

The policy designates energy efficiency as a national infrastructure priority along with renewable energy. Heat accounts for more than 50% of Scotland’s energy use and emissions, according to The Scotsman.

One of the goals is to connect 40,000 homes to district or communal heating by 2020.

"Reducing our dependence on volatile fossil fuels to heat our homes is a huge opportunity to cut bills, lift people out of fuel poverty, enhance energy security and cut emissions," Sam Gardner, head of policy at WWF Scotland told The Scotsman.

But the commitment needs to be backed by clear goals, milestones and a strong funding package, he says. The government says it will work out a detailed plan over the coming year, but that it would require more than £100 billion to replace outdated equipment and to make energy retrofits through 2050.

Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Programme will provide support to upgrade all buildings in Scotland, and the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme launched this year to support infrastructure projects.

Scotland’s goal is to reach 100% renewable energy and banned fracking this year. It is leading on tidal energy and offshore wind. 

Scotland offshore wind

Indonesia Announces Renewable Energy Target

Indonesia announced that renewable energy will provide 19% of all energy by 2019 and 25% by 2025. The country currently gets 5-6% of energy from renewables, reports Jakarta Post.

As of last year’s Climate Summit, Indonesia is on track to cut emissions 26% by 2020.

The government plans to put solar systems on government buildings, map areas of greatest geothermal potential, and create "energy forests" (doesn’t sound good) and energy gardens. It plans to invest $304 billion to meet the goals over the next five years.

We have long heard about the country’s geothermal potential – about 40% of the world’s total – but it still has only 1.2 gigawatt (GW) of capacity out of a potential of 29 GW. 4-5 GW will come online this year, and the goal is for 10 GW by 2025, employing as many as 800,000 people. It has strong feed-in tariffs that support development. 

Surprisingly, Indonesia ranks among the top 10 countries for renewable energy jobs. 

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