Indonesian Climate Justice Review
Indonesian Climate Justice Review (e-ISSN: 3164-2284) is published by COLLEGIUM JUSTICIA INDONESIA, first published in 2024, and issued quarterly in January, April, July, and October in online format (electronic journal). It is a peer-reviewed, open-access academic journal dedicated to advancing interdisciplinary scholarship on climate justice, with a particular focus on Indonesia and the Global South. The journal provides an academic platform for scholars, researchers, legal practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders to examine the intersections of climate change, environmental law, human rights, indigenous peoples’ rights, socio-economic inequality, and sustainable development from a justice-oriented perspective. The journal publishes original research articles, review articles, conceptual studies, policy analyses, case studies, and other scholarly works addressing climate governance, environmental policies, legal frameworks, climate adaptation and mitigation, environmental justice, indigenous and local community rights, sustainable development, and the protection of vulnerable and marginalized communities. The journal welcomes interdisciplinary contributions from environmental law, human rights, political ecology, development studies, climate science, international law, economics, sociology, indigenous studies, and related fields. Particular emphasis is placed on community engagement, participatory justice, equitable climate action, inclusive legal frameworks, community-based resilience, and evidence-based policy reform. The journal applies a double-anonymous peer-review process and an Open Access Policy, providing free and immediate access to all published articles. Copyright is retained by the authors, and all articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License.
Articles
55 Documents
<![CDATA[Green Growth, Dirty Justice: How Indonesia’s Climate Policies Reproduce Social Inequality ]]>
<![CDATA[Carmelo Nayla Coren]]>
<![CDATA[ Indonesian Climate Justice Review Vol. 3 No. 3 (2026): July, 2026 ]]>
Publisher : <![CDATA[COLLEGIUM JUSTICIA INDONESIA ]]>
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DOI: 10.65815/hg5sxh87
<![CDATA[Indonesia’s climate agenda has increasingly embraced the language of green growth, positioning environmental sustainability as compatible with economic expansion. While this framing dominates policy discourse, its social implications receive limited critical attention. This paper examines how green growth-oriented climate policies shape patterns of inequality within Indonesia’s climate governance. Through qualitative analysis of policy documents and climate-related programs, the study traces how mitigation and adaptation initiatives redistribute environmental risks and economic benefits. The analysis suggests that climate interventions frequently prioritize investment certainty and technological solutions, while the experiences and capacities of marginalized communities remain peripheral. Rather than reducing vulnerability, such approaches may entrench existing social hierarchies. By reading climate policies through a justice-oriented lens, the paper highlights tensions between environmental ambition and social outcomes. The discussion underscores how technocratic climate governance can obscure questions of power, participation, and responsibility. These findings invite reconsideration of green growth narratives that assume alignment between sustainability and equity. The paper concludes by reflecting on the implications of justice-blind climate action for the legitimacy and durability of Indonesia’s climate strategies.]]>
<![CDATA[Environmental Defenders Under Threat: Violence, Criminalization, and the Shrinking Space for Ecological Democracy in Indonesia ]]>
<![CDATA[Erika Putri Hutagalung]]>;
<![CDATA[Ahmed Rabbi Mubarak]]>
<![CDATA[ Indonesian Climate Justice Review Vol. 3 No. 3 (2026): July, 2026 ]]>
Publisher : <![CDATA[COLLEGIUM JUSTICIA INDONESIA ]]>
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DOI: 10.65815/dff86c69
<![CDATA[Environmental defenders play a crucial role in challenging ecological destruction, documenting environmental harm, and representing community interests in conflicts over land and natural resources. Yet in Indonesia, individuals and communities defending environmental rights may face intimidation, criminalization, violence, and other forms of pressure. This article examines the conditions confronting environmental defenders and analyzes what these patterns reveal about the state of ecological democracy. Drawing on environmental-justice and human-rights perspectives, the study explores how conflicts surrounding extractive activities can escalate when communities challenge powerful economic and political interests. The case of Koto Rambah in Solok Selatan provides an entry point for examining the relationship between environmental conflict, threats against defenders, and access to justice. The article argues that the protection of environmental defenders is not a peripheral human-rights concern but a fundamental requirement for democratic environmental governance. When citizens are discouraged or punished for raising concerns about pollution, land degradation, or resource extraction, public participation in environmental decision-making is weakened. The resulting democratic deficit can facilitate the continuation of environmentally harmful practices without effective social oversight. The article therefore calls for stronger institutional protection, legal safeguards, accountability mechanisms, and recognition of environmental defense as a legitimate democratic activity. Protecting environmental defenders is ultimately inseparable from protecting communities’ rights to participate in decisions affecting their territories and environments.]]>
<![CDATA[The Climate Crisis Is Not Gender-Neutral: Why Do Women Bear a Heavier Ecological Burden? ]]>
<![CDATA[Pieter Wattimena]]>;
<![CDATA[Martha Manuhutu]]>
<![CDATA[ Indonesian Climate Justice Review Vol. 3 No. 3 (2026): July, 2026 ]]>
Publisher : <![CDATA[COLLEGIUM JUSTICIA INDONESIA ]]>
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DOI: 10.65815/ppn2za63
<![CDATA[Climate change and environmental degradation affect communities unevenly, and gender is a critical dimension of this unequal vulnerability. Women, particularly Indigenous women and women in coastal communities, frequently carry disproportionate responsibilities for food provision, water collection, household care, and livelihood adaptation while having limited influence over environmental decision-making. This article examines the gendered dimensions of ecological burdens in Indonesia by connecting experiences of coastal communities, Indigenous peoples, displacement, and extractive development. Cases such as Kawasi and the Balik community provide important entry points for understanding how environmental transformation affects women’s livelihoods, social reproduction, cultural practices, and political participation. The article employs feminist political ecology to analyze the relationship between environmental change and gendered power structures. It argues that relocation, pollution, resource scarcity, and ecosystem degradation do not simply affect households collectively; they can intensify women’s unpaid labor and reduce their economic and political autonomy. At the same time, women’s knowledge and experiences are frequently marginalized in formal environmental governance. A gender-just approach to climate policy therefore requires more than identifying women as vulnerable groups. It must recognize women as political actors and rights holders whose knowledge is essential to environmental decision-making. The article concludes that climate justice requires gender-responsive governance, protection of livelihoods, meaningful participation, and recognition of the unequal distribution of ecological labor and risk.]]>
<![CDATA[When the Sea Becomes an Extraction Zone: Mining, Sedimentation, and the Future of Coastal Fishers in Indonesia ]]>
<![CDATA[Andi Muhammad Hanafi]]>
<![CDATA[ Indonesian Climate Justice Review Vol. 3 No. 3 (2026): July, 2026 ]]>
Publisher : <![CDATA[COLLEGIUM JUSTICIA INDONESIA ]]>
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DOI: 10.65815/0sycg504
<![CDATA[Indonesia’s coastal and marine spaces are increasingly subject to competing demands for extraction, infrastructure, conservation, transportation, fisheries, and industrial development. The expansion of marine mining and sand extraction raises fundamental questions about who has the authority to determine the use of coastal space and who bears the ecological consequences. This article examines conflicts surrounding marine extraction, with particular attention to sedimentation, coastal ecosystem degradation, fishing grounds, and the rights of traditional fishers. It argues that the transformation of marine space into an extraction zone can undermine livelihoods that depend on relatively stable coastal ecosystems while concentrating economic benefits among industrial and commercial actors. Sedimentation and habitat alteration may affect fisheries, mangroves, seagrass, and coral-associated ecosystems, creating cumulative impacts that are difficult to capture through conventional project-based environmental assessments. Drawing on marine political ecology and environmental-justice perspectives, the article investigates the distribution of benefits, risks, and decision-making power in coastal development. It emphasizes that traditional fishers should not be treated merely as stakeholders to be consulted after development decisions have been made. Their livelihoods and territorial relationships with the sea require substantive recognition within marine spatial planning. The article concludes that sustainable coastal governance must prioritize ecological integrity, livelihood security, participatory decision-making, and equitable access to marine resources.]]>
<![CDATA[Waste Burned, Energy Produced: Is Waste-to-Energy a Climate Solution or a Transfer of Pollution to Poor Communities? ]]>
<![CDATA[Andika Bagus Subagyo]]>
<![CDATA[ Indonesian Climate Justice Review Vol. 3 No. 3 (2026): July, 2026 ]]>
Publisher : <![CDATA[COLLEGIUM JUSTICIA INDONESIA ]]>
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DOI: 10.65815/z30am570
<![CDATA[Waste-to-energy technologies are increasingly promoted as solutions to two interconnected urban challenges: growing waste volumes and the demand for alternative energy sources. In Indonesia, however, the expansion of waste-to-energy facilities has generated debates about emissions, public health, environmental safety, and the location of facilities near residential communities. This article critically examines whether waste-to-energy development should be understood as a climate solution or as a mechanism that redistributes environmental risks toward socially vulnerable populations. The analysis focuses on waste combustion, air emissions, residual waste, health concerns, and the spatial distribution of environmental burdens. Particular attention is given to communities living near proposed or operating facilities, including cases where low-income neighborhoods may experience disproportionate exposure to pollution. Through an environmental-justice framework, the article distinguishes between the potential benefits of reducing landfill dependence and the risks associated with combustion-based waste management. It argues that the climate credentials of waste-to-energy cannot be evaluated solely through energy generation or waste-diversion indicators. Full assessment must include life-cycle emissions, waste composition, air-quality impacts, ash management, public health, and meaningful community participation. The article concludes that waste-to-energy can only contribute to a just transition if it is embedded within a broader waste hierarchy emphasizing prevention, reduction, reuse, recycling, and strict environmental safeguards.]]>
<![CDATA[Nickel Downstreaming and the Question of “For Whom?”: Unpacking the Ecological and Social Burdens of Indonesia’s Energy Transition in North Maluku ]]>
<![CDATA[Dimas Ardhani Putra]]>;
<![CDATA[Mohd Amirul Hakim]]>
<![CDATA[ Indonesian Climate Justice Review Vol. 3 No. 1 (2026): January, 2026 ]]>
Publisher : <![CDATA[COLLEGIUM JUSTICIA INDONESIA ]]>
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DOI: 10.65815/d8dh1s40
<![CDATA[Indonesia’s nickel downstreaming strategy has been promoted as a cornerstone of the country’s green industrialization and electric vehicle transition. Yet the expansion of nickel mining and processing in North Maluku raises a fundamental question: who benefits from the economic value generated by the global battery economy, and who bears its environmental and social costs? Focusing on Obi Island and Kawasi, this article examines the unequal distribution of ecological risks associated with nickel extraction, processing, and industrial development. Particular attention is given to water and soil pollution, landscape transformation, displacement, relocation, and the disruption of local livelihoods. The article further investigates how the language of critical minerals and energy transition can obscure the experiences of communities living at the extraction frontier. By placing Kawasi within a broader political-ecological framework, the study explores how value is accumulated across national and global supply chains while environmental burdens remain concentrated in local communities. It argues that an energy transition cannot be considered just merely because its end products are associated with low-carbon technologies. Rather, justice requires attention to the conditions under which minerals are extracted, the distribution of benefits and risks, and the rights of affected communities to participate meaningfully in decisions concerning their territories.]]>
<![CDATA[From Mine to Battery: Carbon Footprints, Toxic Waste, and Inequality Behind Indonesia’s Nickel Industry ]]>
<![CDATA[Noor Aiman Syahmi]]>
<![CDATA[ Indonesian Climate Justice Review Vol. 3 No. 1 (2026): January, 2026 ]]>
Publisher : <![CDATA[COLLEGIUM JUSTICIA INDONESIA ]]>
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DOI: 10.65815/9743s751
<![CDATA[The global energy transition has intensified demand for nickel as a critical mineral for battery technologies, positioning Indonesia as a major supplier within emerging electric vehicle supply chains. This development is frequently presented as evidence of green industrial transformation. However, the environmental costs embedded in nickel production challenge the assumption that critical-mineral extraction is inherently compatible with climate goals. This article examines the ecological footprint of Indonesia’s nickel industry by tracing the chain from mining and processing to battery-oriented production. It focuses particularly on carbon emissions, tailings, hazardous waste, water contamination, ecosystem degradation, and potential impacts on community health. Special attention is given to high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL), a processing technology associated with the production of substantial quantities of waste and complex environmental management challenges. The article argues that assessing the sustainability of the battery economy requires moving beyond the emissions profile of electric vehicles and considering the full material and ecological life cycle of their components. From this perspective, the discourse of “critical minerals” can conceal unequal environmental burdens concentrated in producing regions. The study concludes that a genuinely sustainable energy transition must integrate resource justice, stronger waste governance, community participation, and life-cycle accountability across global battery supply chains.]]>
<![CDATA[“Forest City” or Forest Under Pressure? Examining IKN’s Green Development Claims through the Lens of Climate Justice ]]>
<![CDATA[Zafriq Al-Hazwan]]>
<![CDATA[ Indonesian Climate Justice Review Vol. 3 No. 1 (2026): January, 2026 ]]>
Publisher : <![CDATA[COLLEGIUM JUSTICIA INDONESIA ]]>
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DOI: 10.65815/8wvc7b03
<![CDATA[Indonesia’s development of Nusantara, the new capital city (IKN), has been framed as an ambitious model of a green, smart, and forest-oriented city. Its planning discourse emphasizes sustainability, low-carbon development, and the integration of urban infrastructure with existing ecosystems. Yet the rapid transformation of the IKN landscape raises questions about the extent to which green-city narratives correspond with actual ecological change. This article critically examines the relationship between IKN’s development model and climate justice by analyzing changes in vegetation cover, carbon storage, infrastructure expansion, and landscape transformation. Particular attention is given to the tension between the official representation of IKN as a “forest city” and evidence of significant changes in vegetation within and around the core development area. Rather than treating environmental sustainability as a technical planning objective alone, the article approaches IKN through a climate-justice framework that considers who benefits from infrastructure investment, who bears ecological risks, and whose understanding of landscape value is recognized in decision-making. The article argues that a city cannot be considered green solely because of its planning rhetoric or technological ambitions. Green development must also account for ecological integrity, carbon consequences, distributive impacts, and the rights of communities affected by territorial transformation.]]>
<![CDATA[When the Capital Enters Indigenous Territory: Balik Women and the Politics of Livable Space in Sepaku ]]>
<![CDATA[Muhammad Amru]]>
<![CDATA[ Indonesian Climate Justice Review Vol. 3 No. 1 (2026): January, 2026 ]]>
Publisher : <![CDATA[COLLEGIUM JUSTICIA INDONESIA ]]>
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DOI: 10.65815/fn7vbh42
<![CDATA[The construction of Indonesia’s new capital city in East Kalimantan has transformed Sepaku into a major frontier of infrastructure development, investment, and territorial restructuring. Beneath the national narrative of modernization, however, Indigenous Balik communities face profound changes in land access, livelihoods, cultural landscapes, and social relations. This article focuses specifically on the experiences of Balik women, whose perspectives are essential for understanding the gendered consequences of capital-city development. Drawing on feminist political ecology and Indigenous territorial rights, the study examines how land acquisition, displacement, environmental transformation, and changing access to natural resources affect women’s everyday lives. It asks how women experience the loss or fragmentation of spaces that support food production, household economies, cultural practices, and community relationships. The article also investigates the unequal power relations embedded in development planning, particularly the gap between state-defined public interest and Indigenous understandings of territory and livable space. By centering women’s experiences, the study challenges approaches that treat displacement primarily as a question of physical relocation and compensation. It argues that territorial justice must recognize social reproduction, cultural identity, gendered labor, and political participation. The case of Balik women demonstrates that infrastructure development can simultaneously produce economic opportunity and deepen existing inequalities in access to land, resources, and decision-making.]]>
<![CDATA[Who Pays for Economic Growth? Unequal Ecological Risks in Indonesia’s Eight-Percent Growth Model ]]>
<![CDATA[Nurin Karmila Putri Aditya]]>
<![CDATA[ Indonesian Climate Justice Review Vol. 3 No. 1 (2026): January, 2026 ]]>
Publisher : <![CDATA[COLLEGIUM JUSTICIA INDONESIA ]]>
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DOI: 10.65815/gmmb8w26
<![CDATA[Indonesia’s ambition to achieve rapid economic growth, including an eight-percent growth target, raises an important question about how the environmental and social costs of development are distributed. Economic growth indicators generally capture production, investment, and income while providing limited insight into pollution, ecosystem degradation, displacement, public health impacts, and the loss of community livelihoods. This article examines Indonesia’s growth-oriented development model through the concept of environmental externalities and distributive environmental justice. It asks whether the benefits generated by infrastructure, extractive industries, industrialization, and resource-based development are distributed proportionately with the risks they create. The analysis focuses on the structural separation between economic beneficiaries and communities exposed to ecological damage. Such disparities may occur across regions, social classes, generations, and urban-rural spaces. The article argues that environmental costs are frequently treated as external to economic calculations even when they generate substantial long-term burdens for communities and public institutions. Consequently, headline economic growth may coexist with declining environmental quality and increasing social vulnerability. A more comprehensive assessment of development should therefore incorporate ecological costs, social reproduction, public health, and intergenerational justice into economic decision-making. The article concludes that sustainable growth requires moving from a narrow growth-centered paradigm toward a model in which environmental integrity and social well-being constitute fundamental measures of economic success.]]>
