Identifying social and political obstacles to bioethanol production from sugarcane in East Java, Indonesia

Sammanfattning: Indonesia has implemented national policies and legislations to encourage biofuel production as means to achieve energy security and self-sufficiency and to reduce reliance of fossil fuel reserves. However, there is still no clear road-map for the socio-technological transition. While acknowledging economic impediments, this case study investigates social and political obstacles to bioethanol production from sugarcane in East Java, Indonesia. This study is based on Multi-Level Perspective and Technological Innovation System as integrated theoretical frameworks together with Political Ecology as an approach to get around the complexity of biofuels. Based on primary data, the research identifies several social and political obstacles to the bioethanol development. Indonesia’s sugar industry is facing many issues and therefore this study considers a reboot of the sector to be a prerequisite for bioethanol development in Indonesia. The research finds that many obstacles are related to lack of mobilisation of resources, and cooperation is found to be key in facilitating the bioethanol transformation in the particular context. The inconsistency of policies and legislations of sugar import, bioethanol targets and export regulations is evident, and can be traced to be hampered by lack of government commitment and top-down policy structure. For the socio-technological transition to take off, it is essential for all stakeholders involved to strive for sugar- and bioethanol industries to be integrated, through measures of more effective communication tools, multi-stakeholder participatory processes and incentives for collaboration.