Presentation Information
[3310]Political economy of green energy transition: Transforming mining oligarchy in Indonesia
○Takahiro Kamisuna1 (1. Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge)
Chairperson: 渡邊絢子（秋田大学）
Keywords:
Oligarchy,Mining,Green energy,Industrial policy,Indonesia
Since political scientist Michael Ross (1999; 2001b) proposed his thesis on ‘resource curse’, natural resource wealth and its impact on state and economic instituions have been a primary interest of political scientists both in quantitative and qualitative research paradigms. The global energy transition from fossil-fuel to renewable energy sources has, however, empirically challenged Ross’ theory of resource curse. While proponents of resource curse have linked abundant natural resource wealth and institutional weakness in developing economies, the recent green energy transition explicitly showed a transition or expansion of rent-seeking from mining per se to downstream industries. How do we explain the transition of rent-seeking patten from upstream to downstream industries in mineral resources? By drawing a case of mining oligarchy in Indonesia, this article will theoretically unpack the ‘dirty’ part of ‘clean’ energy transition over the oligarchic interest from mining to downstream industries. A single-case study of post-authoritarian mining oligarchy in Indonesia precisely captures two different shifts in parallel: commodity shift from coal to nickel mining and policy shift from upstream to downstream industries. Those two parameters explain how post-authoritarian oligarchy in Indonesia transited from mining to green oligarchy over the course of green energy transition.