Exploring Indonesia’s energy policy failures through the JUST framework

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided momentum for the global energy transition and countries, including Indonesia, should take this opportunity to accelerate this process. This paper reviews Indonesian energy subsidy policy failures using the JUST Framework developed by Heffron and McCauley (2018) and the day-watchman approach by Sokołowski (2020). This article aims to provide different views on why energy subsidy policy failures have hampered Indonesia's energy transition, primarily focusing on the need for urgent policy reform to accelerate its energy transition. The paper utilises quantitative, qualitative, and comparative analyses to assess Indonesian energy policy failures, highlighting different strategies in reforming its energy subsidy policies. The countries selected for comparative study are classified into: OECD and Non-OECD countries. The result confirms that despite the Indonesian Government's efforts in reforming fossil fuel subsidies and improving renewable energy development, Indonesia is no better than comparative countries and should learn from others (France, Spain, and Brazil). Additionally, the result shows that giving more fossil fuel subsidies hampers a country's renewable energy development and energy transition. Therefore, fossil fuel subsidy reform would be conducted most effectively through balanced energy regulation of the day-watchman approach.