Energy and Landscape in the Just Transition: Stories from 3 Villages

By Aidy Halimanjaya

Translated and adapted from the Conversation Indonesia article published 14th July 2026

Just Transition Must Connect Energy with People and Places

Big climate plans often focus on huge projects like giant solar farms or green hydrogen plants, but these top-down ideas can forget about local people, their needs, and their environment. A truly fair transition must involve communities and protect nature, not just swap one energy source for another. When transitions are treated as mere technological substitutions, swapping coal for solar without changing who holds power and who benefits, they risk repeating the old patterns of extraction and exclusion that the fossil fuel economy was built upon. Three villages in Indonesia show a different way, proving that climate action works best when it is local, protects the landscape, and creates new kinds of livelihoods that give communities real independence and choice.

Local Energy from Waste Strengthens Both Landscape and Livelihoods

In Wonocoyo Village in East Java, a quiet transformation began not in government offices but in the kitchens of local households. Since 2019, a group of women has been leading an initiative that turns everyday kitchen waste into clean cooking gas using simple home-made biogas systems. Organic waste from daily cooking is collected and placed into a sealed tank, where natural fermentation breaks the material down and produces pressurized biogas that is piped directly back into kitchens for cooking. This means families no longer have to buy expensive gas or spend hours gathering firewood, and the leftover material becomes nutrient-rich fertilizer for their small farms. This small-scale circular system helps families save money, reduces waste going into landfills, and gives them more control over their own energy needs. The village received some support from municipal funds, but the driving force comes from the community itself.

Foto: Jatim Today

Protecting Landscapes Is the Smartest Energy-Saving Strategy

In Siak Regency in Riau, the challenge was about preventing ecological destruction. For years, the region suffered from severe forest and land fires during the dry season, requiring massive and incredibly expensive firefighting operations. Operating a single water-bombing helicopter could cost upwards of IDR 200 million per flight hour, and Riau's cumulative firefighting budgets reached an astronomical IDR 57.7 billion. In 2021, the government shifted from reacting to fires to preventing them by allocating just IDR 229 million directly to villages for patrols, early-warning equipment, and peatland rewetting. This proactive approach worked remarkably well. By protecting the peatland landscape from burning, they preserved a critical global carbon sink and avoided enormous fossil-fuel-intensive emergency operations. The lesson is clear: protecting natural landscapes is itself a powerful form of energy conservation.

Alternative Economies Let Communities Choose Landscape over Extraction

In Tukamasea Village in South Sulawesi, the community faced the threat of cement mining that was destroying their beautiful karst ecosystems. Mining offered short-term money but would cause long-term ecological ruin. Rather than accepting this destructive path, they built an ecotourism park instead, using village funds and government grants. In its first year, the park hired 23 local residents, generated IDR 60 million in revenue, and funded free education for 240 children from marginalized families. With this new income, villagers gained the financial independence to reject further mining concessions and protect their land.

These three stories teach us simple but powerful lessons: preventing damage is cheaper and cleaner than fixing problems later, real change happens when communities have a say and gain direct benefits, and when villages control their own budgets they can choose what is best for their own future. There is still a long way to go because not every village has the same support or capacity, but these examples show that a fair, green future is not just a distant dream. It is already being built, one village at a time, from the ground up, by ordinary people who refuse to wait for permission to create the change they want to see.

Foto: kumparan