Charcoal

Indonesia’s omnibus law a ‘major problem’ for environmental protection

JAKARTA — The Indonesian government is trying to downplay the potential environmental fallout from a recently passed slate of deregulation, prompting criticism from experts.Foreign investors have joined domestic groups — ranging from labor unions to university students to religious conservatives — in flagging concerns about the so-called omnibus law on job creation that parliament passed on Oct. 5. In a recent letter to the Indonesian government, a group that includes 35 global investors, managing a combined $4.1 trillion in assets, expressed worries that the new legislation will have damaging...

Indonesian officials linked to mining and ‘dirty energy’ firms benefiting from deregulation law

JAKARTA — When Indonesia’s parliament passed a new slate of deregulation that, among other things, drastically strips back environmental protections against coal mining, critics and protesters denounced it as catering to business interests.Now, a new report lays bare what many already suspected: several of the politicians who pushed for the new legislation have links to the mining companies that stand to benefit from the changes.The report, compiled by a coalition of Indonesian NGOs, uses corporate registries and other publicly available sources to map out the connections between the mining an...