Eyewitness News – DENPASAR
September 30, 2026
In the second week of the Bali Net Zero Emission Coalition Forum, held in partnership with the Bali chapter of the Society of Indonesian Environmental Journalists (SIEJ) on Tuesday (Sept.29), experts highlighted a persistent lack of synergy and coordination between central and regional governments regarding national climate and energy policies.
Despite these structural hurdles, several local policies are reportedly making strides toward achieving net-zero emissions by 2045, as revealed during a Climate Change Journalism Workshop at Puri Ayu hotel in Denpasar.
Fatiha Nurfitriani, a policy specialist at the Bali Net Zero Emission Coalition, emphasized that robust climate governance relies on strong political commitments, solid institutional frameworks, efficient policy implementation, and active stakeholder engagement. She noted that ASEAN member states have collectively demonstrated rising political awareness, as outlined in the ASEAN Community Vision 2025.
All ASEAN member nations have ratified the Paris Agreement and established their respective Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Economic and Infrastructure Hurdles
Despite strong political support at the local level, execution faces substantial structural friction:
• Tax Revenue Dilemma: Plans to implement Low Emission Zones (LEZ) conflict with the province’s reliance on Local Generated Revenue (PAD), which remains heavily driven by motor vehicle taxes on conventional fossil-fuel vehicles.
• Tourism and Land Conversion: Rapid commercial expansion in tourism continues to compromise environmental protection, driving the conversion of traditional subak rice fields and reducing designated conservation zones.
• National Power Oversupply: On the national scale, clean energy adoption is slowed by an oversupply of fossil-fuel power plants (coal) on the main grid, alongside bureaucratic hurdles and shifting incentive structures for distributed solar rooftops.
However, localized climate threats remain acute. “Bali faces an expanding threat of permanent coastal inundation driven by climate change,” Nurfitriani warned. “Rising sea levels causing severe coastal erosion could—and should—catalyze stronger political will.”
Nurfitriani noted that there is still time to refine regional strategy, pointing out that the Bali Provincial Government has already issued several policy directives toward the 2045 net-zero objective.
”Looking ahead over the next 15 years, the impacts of policy shifts by the Bali Provincial Government must be systematically aligned with broader renewable energy targets,” she added.
Sekar Trisnaning, representing the Bali Net Zero Emission Coalition Secretariat, projected that Bali’s cumulative emissions from 2019 through 2045 could reach 26.9 million metric tons of CO_2 equivalent if left unchecked. She stressed the importance of utilizing the remaining timeframe to suppress these figures as much as possible.
Waste Management and Governance Challenges
Addressing local environmental pressures, Catur Yuda Hariani, Director of the Bali Environmental Education Center Foundation (PPLH Bali), presented a session titled “Bali’s Waste: Challenges, Impacts, and Governance.”
Hariani acknowledged that Bali already possesses a solid regulatory foundation, including Law No. 18/2008 on Waste Management, Bali Gubernatorial Regulation No. 97/2018 on Single-Use Plastic Restrictions, Regulation No. 47/2019 on Source-Based Waste Management, and Circular Letter No. 9/2025 on the Clean Waste Bali Movement.
However, operational waste management continues to suffer from weak inter-agency coordination, unclear role delegation, inadequate capacity, funding deficits, flawed data, and lax oversight.
”Field observations across various regencies and cities show that inter-governmental coordination remains noticeably weak,” Hariani said.
She noted, however, that progress accelerates significantly when top local leadership exerts firm pressure.
“For instance, when the Governor of Bali warned that financial grants would be withheld from customary villages (desa adat) that failed to enact waste-management customary laws (pararem) within one month, local action followed swiftly.”
Hariani highlighted several ongoing operational bottlenecks, including low rates of waste sorting and organic processing, illegal dumping, open trash burning, limited markets for compost offtakers, and budget constraints for community waste processing facilities (TPS3R).
Furthermore, she urged municipal authorities to prioritize the safety and dignity of frontline waste workers by providing proper personal protective equipment (PPE)—such as protective boots, hats, masks, and heavy-duty gloves.
Underlining the scale of the crisis, daily weigh-in reports from the Suwung Landfill between September 21–27, 2026, recorded an average of 591 garbage truck deliveries per day, carrying an average net weight of 1,320 metric tons of waste daily.
Hariani concluded by advising regional leaders to conduct direct field inspections, foster cross-regency cooperation, and ensure that budgetary allocations for waste governance are deployed with targeted efficiency.
Reporter: Daniel Herry
