Indonesia relies for more than half of its electricity on coal-fired power plants, and has plans to build dozens more in the coming years, bucking a worldwide shift away from fossil fuels and toward renewable sources of energy.
A far-reaching corruption scandal centered on a proposed power plant in Indonesia has cast a shadow over the country's risky reliance on coal as a supposedly cheap source of energy.
Demand for energy in China and Indonesia continues to drive the resurgence of the latter's coal industry, setting back efforts in both countries to shift to a greater share of renewable energy.
Organizers of the Asian Games are wary of the event being hit by haze from brush and peat fires in Sumatra.The government has called on pulpwood and oil palm companies to take steps to prevent fires during this year's dry season.
Activists in Indonesia have called on the Chinese government to withdraw funding for a hydroelectric dam that threatens to fragment the only known habitat of the most endangered great ape on Earth.
Local and international watchdogs have criticized Asia Pulp and Paper for what they deem a failure to live up to its flagship zero-deforestation policy.
