On 3 July 2025, PAGE launched the first in a series of five virtual policy dialogues between South Africa and Indonesia. This inaugural session featured as a side event of the G20 Energy Transition Working Group (ETWG) under South Africa’s presidency, building on the voluntary principles for a just energy transition that were adopted during Brazil’s presidency in the previous year. Co-organized with South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the dialogue aimed to contribute to the non-negotiated G20 Presidency Document under Outcome 2 on Socio-economic Safeguards for Fossil Fuel-Dependent Regions as well as shape and inform just energy transition narratives around principles of decent work and social justice in the Global South.
3 July 2025
G20 Side Event: South Africa-Indonesia Policy Dialogue on Just Transition in Coal Mining Regions
Speakers
- Dr. Moustapha Kamal Gueye, Director, ILO Priority Action Programme on Just Transition towards Environmentally Sustainable Economies and Societies
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Dr. Moustapha Kamal Gueye, Director, ILO Priority Action Programme on Just Transition towards Environmentally Sustainable Economies and Societies - Mr. Togu Pardede, Director for Energy, Mineral Resources and Mining at BAPPENAS, Indonesia
![Mr Togu P BAPPENAS Indonesia]()
Mr. Togu Pardede, Director for Energy, Mineral Resources and Mining at BAPPENAS, Indonesia - Mr. Siphamandla Daniel, Department of Electricity and Energy, South Africa
![Mr. Siphamandla Daniel, Department of Electricity and Energy, South Africa]()
Mr. Siphamandla Daniel, Department of Electricity and Energy, South Africa - Ms. Lebogang Mulaisi, Executive Manager Policy and Research, Presidential Climate Commission, South Africa
![Lebogang Mulaisi, Presidential Climate Commission, PCC South Africa]()
Ms. Lebogang Mulaisi, Executive Manager Policy and Research, Presidential Climate Commission, South Africa - Ms. Tanya Van Meelis, Head of Policy Unit, Congress of South African Trade Unions
![Tanya Van Meelis, Congress of South African Trade Unions]()
Ms. Tanya Van Meelis, Head of Policy Unit, Congress of South African Trade Unions - Dr. Thabo Hlalele, Energy Centre Research Manager, CSIR
![Thabo Hlalele South Africa CSIR]()
Dr. Thabo Hlalele, Energy Centre Research Manager, CSIR
A Shared Commitment and Parallel Journey
The dialogue highlighted striking similarities between the two emerging economies, where coal continues to play a critical role—providing jobs, significant revenues, and a major share of electricity generation. Coal also remains the economic backbone of many mining regions. Both countries share a commitment to a just energy transition as part of their national decarbonization plans and are endowed with vast, largely untapped renewable energy potential. They have both established Just Energy Transition Partnerships with international partner groups, mobilizing large-scale public and private financing for the low-carbon economy. However, multiple speakers emphasized that a just transition involves more than financial commitments. It requires a strong national framework, inclusive planning, meaningful public stakeholder consultation, and multi-sector collaboration.
Power Plant
Coal Transitions in Indonesia and South Africa
Indonesia’s Ministry of National Development and Planning (BAPPENAS) emphasized the importance of aligning long-term planning, investments, and incentives with regional development strategies in coal-producing areas. Coal production still benefits from subsidies in Indonesia, while value addition remains limited. Nevertheless, successful cases, such as Sawahlunto in West Sumatra, where a coal-dependent city reinvented itself as a center for cultural tourism vocational training, offer hope. This transformation helped reverse economic decline, secured people’s livelihood, and significantly reduced poverty.
South Africa’s Department of Energy and Electricity provided an honest reflection on the challenges of the country’s early energy transition experience, which included rising energy costs, job losses, and economic disruption. These challenges have led to a renewed focus on reskilling, upskilling, and social protection to support affected workers before, during and after the transition.
The International Labour Organization highlighted that decent work encompasses more than wages, highlighting the importance of working conditions and labour rights.
Wind Energy Renewable Energy Shared by ILO
Voices from Workers and Climate Commission
Both countries underscored the critical importance of social dialogue and multi-level stakeholder involvement, bringing together government, labour, communities, and business to agree on fair timelines and compensation measures for coal plant closures and workforce transitions, starting at the national level but anchored in the realities of the most affected regions.
Panellists called for a just transition that addresses rather than reinforces historically grown structural inequalities. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) emphasized that meaningful social dialogue must occur at multiple levels—national, regional, and enterprise—ensuring that the right stakeholders are engaged at the right time, and that solutions are supported by evidence-based research. South Africa’s Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) emphasized the need to contextualize job creation in the renewable energy sector, underscoring the importance of social protection and demand-led skills development. The PCC warned that training workers without considering future labour market demands risks being ineffective.
Workers
This South-South knowledge exchange will continue monthly through November 2025, reinforcing PAGE's commitment to supporting the G20 agenda of promoting "robust, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth."