Indonesia’s OJK Urges Regions to Tap Carbon Exchange for Economic and Environmental Gains

Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK) has said the country’s carbon exchange represents a genuine opportunity for regional governments to raise local revenues while simultaneously protecting forests and reducing emissions. Bayu Samodro, Head of OJK’s Directorate for Information Analysis and Crisis Management of Capital Markets, Derivative Finance and the Carbon Exchange, made the remarks in Bandarlampung on 19 May 2026.

Samodro noted that Indonesia’s carbon exchange currently operates at the institutional level and has not yet opened to retail or individual investors, though OJK is actively expanding public education on the market. He added that ESG-focused listed companies already operate within the carbon exchange framework, submitting emissions performance data through mandatory sustainability reports — a credibility signal that, in his view, makes such companies increasingly attractive to investors.

Pointing to Lampung province specifically, Samodro said local governments with significant forest resources have both an opportunity and an obligation to rehabilitate degraded land that carries carbon value, and that proceeds from carbon trading could be channelled into community welfare programmes. OJK indicated it plans to assess how many Lampung-listed issuers are already active participants in the carbon exchange.