PRESS RELEASE : UK and Indonesia strengthen partnerships on growth and climate [September 2024]

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 17 September 2024.

UK and Indonesia to sign agreements on development and critical minerals, as Development Minister visits region for first time.

• UK and Indonesia strengthen cooperation on sustainable growth, climate change and the empowerment of women and girls
• comes with Minister for Development Anneliese Dodds’ first trip to Indonesia, where she will sign 2 agreements to accelerate cooperation on development and critical minerals
• follows a major speech earlier today from the Foreign Secretary on the climate and nature crisis

The UK is committing to help accelerate the global transition to clean energy and efforts to tackle climate change. Anneliese Dodds, UK Minister of State for Development and Minister of State for Women and Equalities, has arrived in Jakarta to strengthen partnerships with Indonesia on green growth, climate, and the empowerment of women and girls.

The 3-day visit to Indonesia (16 to 19 September) is the minister’s first visit to Southeast Asia in her new role. It follows a major speech from the Foreign Secretary earlier today on the climate and nature crisis and comes as the UK and Indonesia celebrate the 75th year of their diplomatic relationship.

While in Indonesia, the minister will also sign 2 sets of bilateral memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with Indonesia’s National Planning Agency (Bappenas) on development cooperation and strategic partnership on critical minerals with the Ministry for Energy and Mineral Resources.

Based on the principle of mutual respect and partnership, these MoUs will set out ways of collaborating on Indonesia’s development objectives and on shared priorities such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to address the most pressing global challenges of our time.

Anneliese Dodds, Minister of State for Development and Minister of State for Women and Equalities, said:

The new UK government’s development mission is to build genuine partnerships to help create a world free from poverty, on a liveable planet.

Indonesia is a vast country, with a huge population and great economic potential. Strengthening our relationship with Indonesia can help us, together, to tackle the climate and nature crisis while creating sustainable jobs and growth.

I’ll be working with key figures in the Indonesian government to make progress towards those goals, securing key agreements between our 2 countries on development and critical minerals.

I will also learn how grassroots projects in Indonesia are empowering women and girls while encouraging sustainable stewardship of its abundant biodiversity and natural resources.

Gender equality is the fundamental building block of all healthy democracies, and this government is committed to putting women and girls at the heart of everything we do.

Minister Dodds is attending a number of bilateral meetings while in Indonesia, including with Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia, Vice Foreign Minister Pahala Mansury, Minister for National Development Planning Suharso Monoarfa and Minister of Forestry and Environment Siti Nurbaya Bakar. Discussions will focus on cooperation on climate, green growth, energy transition, the international development agenda and more.

The minister will also attend discussions on progressing Indonesia’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP). The JETP provides a finance package and technical assistance to support Indonesia’s shift to clean energy and global efforts to tackle climate change, unlocking new projects, jobs and drive economic growth.

While currently powered mostly by coal, Indonesia has massive renewable energy potential. Effective, more sustainable management of Indonesian forests coupled with helping it shift to cleaner energy is in everyone’s interests. UK technical know-how and access to finance will help make this happen – tackling the climate crisis and creating new economic growth in the process.

The minister will travel to the South Sulawesi province in East Indonesia to see how the UK is supporting local climate and development initiatives. She will engage with local communities to learn how they protect the environment through eco-tourism and community-led green growth practices, generating local revenues while supporting long-term education for women and girls.

The visit builds on the new UK government’s modernised approach to development, working hand in hand with diplomacy, resetting the UK’s relationship with the Global South and building partnerships based on genuine respect.

It complements the climate and nature ambitions set out in Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s major speech at Kew Gardens in London today, where he announced a Global Clean Power Alliance, plans to unlock more climate finance, and action to halt the decline in global biodiversity.