"Coal-Related Death Toll to Climb, Warns Greenpeace", 14 Aug 2015

The international environmental NGO Greenpeace this week released a report slamming the effects of Indonesia’s coal power plants, offering a dire warning for the health of communities and environment around the plants and calling on the country to move toward more sustainable methods of generating power…“Air pollution is responsible for over 3 million premature deaths globally every year,” the report said.  Of this figure, 6,500 deaths are in Indonesia…Greenpeace disputes government policy which argues that, for the millions of Indonesians living without ready access to electricity, coal-generated power is the best option to quickly and efficiently fill the gap…The NGO goes so far as to suggest the reliance on coal is in fact “unconstitutional,” quoting Article 28H(1) of the Constitution which “protects the right to a healthy environment.”…The report offers a number of recommendations to the energy sector, including stronger monitoring of emissions and violations of environmental standards and the shutting down of plants which fail to meet these standards…