Indonesia's Housing Deal With China Needs A Green Clause

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On the other, it also erects vast numbers of ordinary concrete buildings that consume enormous energy and generate heavy pollution. Which version of China's building technology comes to Indonesia will depend on what gets written into this deal-not on chance.

Indonesia has been here before, in a different sector. Its nickel-mining and battery-material industry grew rapidly on the back of Chinese investment, but much of it runs on coal plants built specifically to power those factories. That choice locked in decades of coal use to support a supposedly clean industry: electric-vehicle batteries.

Buildings last even longer than factories. If millions of new homes are built the old way - reliant on heavy concrete and tethered to a coal-powered grid - Indonesia will be locked into that choice for 30 to 50 years, since homes are neither easy nor cheap to retrofit once standing.

There is a simple way to avoid repeating that mistake. As the two governments draft the rules for this housing program, Indonesia should insist on a full package of clean technology that China already produces at scale.

Solar panels should be built into every rooftop from the start, rather than retrofitted later, especially since Indonesia scaled back its rules for selling surplus solar power back to the grid in 2024, and the state power company has been slow to embrace residential solar.

Batteries should be included, too, so that elevators, water pumps and lights keep running during the power cuts still common in many parts of the country. Heat pumps or efficient air conditioners matter too, since cooling accounts for a large share of Indonesia's electricity use, and better equipment can cut that consumption significantly.

Cleaner cement should replace the conventional kind: standard cement production accounts for a substantial share of the world's pollution, and China has developed lower-emission methods of making it.

Parking areas should include space and electrical outlets for charging electric motorbikes and cars, built in from day one rather than added years later at greater cost. And new buildings should use water-saving, energy-efficient appliances, which lower both electricity bills and strain on the power grid.

China has good reason to agree to all this. Its factories now produce far more solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicles than domestic buyers can absorb, and prices at home have fallen sharply as a result.