One in five people on the planet today still lacks access to electricity (United Nations Development Programme, 2018). Hence, ensuring universal access to energy services is a vital goal for the power sector worldwide. However, this goal has to be aligned with another pivotal global ambition: curbing climate change. Moreover, while the power sector becomes the target for reducing global carbon emissions, the sector itself is vulnerable to the adverse impacts of the changing climate. Climate change affects the power sector in two ways: through acute, disruptive, severe weather events and gradual long-term changes in climate parameters (Sieber, 2013). This paper aims to analyze the interplay between three goals –electrification, climate change mitigation, and climate change impact and adaptation– taking the Indonesian power sector as a case study. The country strives to achieve near-universal electricity access by 2020 (Government of The Republic of Indonesia, 2014). While today the country’s electricity supply relies heavily on fossil fuels, it pledges to reduce its carbon emissions by 29% in 2030 (Government of The Republic of Indonesia, 2016). Meanwhile, the electricity supply in the country is often interrupted by severe weather events (PLN Yogyakarta, 2015), which promise to be even more frequent and severe in the climate-changed world. We address this problem by providing a framework for an integrated analysis of electrification, climate change mitigation, and climate change adaptation for developing a low-carbon and climate-resilient power system.
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