M. Ali Akbar et al. v. Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources of the Republic of Indonesia (Lawsuit against The PLN’s Business Plan 2025–2034)

In November 2025, seven plaintiffs consisting of four Indonesian individual citizens (M. Ali Akbar, Hadi Priyanto, Sumiati Surbakti, and Wahyu Widiarto) and three environmental NGOs (WALHI, Trend Asia, and Greenpeace Indonesia) filed a state administrative lawsuit (gugatan tata usaha negara) at the Jakarta Administrative Court (PTUN Jakarta) against the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources of the Republic of Indonesia. The contested administrative act is Ministerial Decree No. 188.K/TL.03/MEM.L/2025, signed 05/26/2025 and publicly released 06/03/2025, which approved PT PLN (Indonesia State Utility Company)’s Electricity Supply Business Plan for 2025–2034. The Business Plan is the binding electricity planning document governing Indonesia’s state electricity company and determining the national power generation mix for a decade. The four individual plaintiffs reside near coal-fired power plants (PLTU) in Bengkulu, Jakarta, Medan, and Bandung, and are consumers of PLN electricity. They alleged direct harm to their constitutional rights to a healthy environment and clean air. Together, the Plaintiffs argued the Business Plan 2025–2034 is unlawful on multiple grounds. First, the Business Plan violates the National Long-Term Development Plan Law (UU RPJPN 2025–2045), which mandates coal phase-out beginning in 2030. Instead, the Business Plan replaces “coal phase-out” language from the prior RUPTL 2021–2030 with “coal phase-down”. The plan also includes provisions to extend existing coal plant lifetimes by 10 - 20 years through cofiring retrofits and contract extensions, and contains no coal retirement roadmap for either its 2025 - 2029 or 2030 - 2034 planning phases. Second, the Business Plan violates Presidential Regulation No. 112/2022, which prohibits new coal plants (except those already in the pipeline by 2021) and mandates a coal phase-out roadmap with specific components. The plaintiffs asserted that the Business Plan includes approximately 2,600 MW of new coal plants beyond what was included in the 2021 - 2030 Business Plan. Third, the Business Plan was issued without a Strategic Environmental Assessment (Kajian Lingkungan Hidup Strategis / KLHS) as required under Law No. 32 of 2009, despite the Business Plan projecting a significant increase in CO₂ emissions from 309 million tons/year in 2025 to 374 million tons/year by 2034. Fourth, the Business Plan violates human rights obligations by perpetuating and expanding the documented harmful health and environmental impacts of coal plants, including air pollution, premature deaths, and ecological degradation. Fifth, the Business Plan violates the Electricity Law’s principles of cost efficiency and energy optimization by planning expensive gas and nuclear (Small Modular Reactors) capacity without full economic analysis and by underestimating renewable energy cost competitiveness which has reached historic low. Sixth, the Business Plan violates Indonesia’s obligations under the Paris Agreement ratification law by regressing from prior climate commitments, including lowering the 2030 renewable energy target from 24.8% to 19.3–21% by 2030. Plaintiffs seek the court to declare the PLN’s Business Plan 2025–2034 null and void, order the Minister to revoke it, and compel the issuance of a new, lawful RUPTL consistent with Indonesian legislation and good governance principles.