Finally Landing in Bali for ICBS 2026 🌋✈️🌊

Volcano eruption, online school again, airport chaos, a detour to Jogja — this trip to Bali felt like a full-on Covid-era déjà vu. But we finally made it, and we're super excited to attend the Indonesia Carbon and Biodiversity Summit 2026 as one of its official media partner! Day two tomorrow is themed "Markets, Technology & Nature," with sessions on carbon markets, blue carbon, and the latest carbon tech. We'll be covering it live tomorrow, so stay tuned across all Cleanomic channels!

While we wait for tomorrow, here's a quick recap of what's been happening in Indonesia's carbonsphere lately:

1. New Regulation: Waste-Sector Carbon Trading Finally Has Its Legal Framework

The freshest one: the Ministry of Environment/Environmental Control Agency just signed Minister of Environment/BPLH Regulation No. 11 of 2026 on Procedures for Carbon Trading in the Waste Sector.

Waste is now officially a recognized entry point into carbon trading, covering three categories of activity:

• Industrial solid waste

• Industrial and domestic liquid waste

• Municipal solid waste

See some of the samples of carbon projects in the waste sector that have already been registered in SRUK - see above.

Alongside this, two supporting regulations also just came out:

• PADK (OJK Board Member Regulation) No. 6 of 2026 on Procedures for Carbon Trading through the Carbon Exchange, signed 24 July 2026. It implements POJK 14/2023 (as amended by POJK 10/2026) and sets out, via two technical annexes, the operating rules for carbon exchange operators — from the units tradeable on the exchange and capital/shareholder requirements down to licensing procedures and reporting obligations. It also formally revokes the old SEOJK 12/2023 circular it replaces.

• KAN (National Accreditation Committee) Regulation No. 1 of 2026 on Competency Standards for Independent Validators and Verifiers in Carbon Economic Value Instruments, issued under Perpres 110/2025. It sets the general and specific competency standards (GHG program knowledge, audit skills, SNI-based technical competence) that independent validation/verification bodies must meet, with certification issued by KAN-accredited certification bodies under SNI ISO/IEC 17024.

And one more still in the pipeline: a draft (Rancangan) POJK on Information Technology Operations in the Capital Market, Derivatives, and Carbon Exchange sectors — as of this draft it has no regulation number or enactment date yet. It would require "Providers" (including carbon exchange operators) to apply IT governance, risk management, cyber resilience, and security standards, with stricter obligations for entities OJK classifies as "High Category" providers.

2. Insights from the Roundtable: "Indonesia's Carbon Moment"

On 19 August 2026, the ASEAN Alliance on Carbon Markets (AACM), in collaboration with S&P Global, hosted a roundtable discussion titled "Indonesia's Carbon Moment: Issuances, Price Signals & ASEAN Market Dynamics." A few highlights I found worth sharing:

a. Indonesia is the region's natural-asset center Indonesia holds 60% of the region's tropical peatland — a massive natural capital base for our carbon market.

b. SRUK — where does it stand now?

• SRUK functions as Indonesia's National Carbon Registry — a tracking registry for all carbon units, across compliance markets, voluntary markets, and Article 6

• Doubles as a tracking system and a single source of truth for the end-to-end project approval process

• Uses a multi-user interface so sectoral ministries can approve projects directly within the system

• Currently, the Ministry of Forestry is the only ministry with regulations fully in place; other sectoral ministries will be onboarded as their own regulations are finalized

• Notably: Verra, Gold Standard, and Isometric have committed to connecting to SRUK, aiming to mirror credit issuance directly into SRUK without double data entry

  
  

c. On Non-Tax State Revenue (PNBP) Regulations around carbon-related PNBP are being updated. There's awareness of potential under-invoicing risk — the government wants to build a fair ecosystem while protecting national interests, but is also being careful not to over-regulate the ecosystem into stagnation.

d. Biochar still under discussion The regulatory framework for biochar is still being worked out — one area worth watching going forward.

3. Carbonethics Launches Rumah Karbon Biru

Carbonethics has officially launched Rumah Karbon Biru, an initiative to advance community-based blue carbon rehabilitation. Always glad to see more local players getting serious about blue carbon — Indonesia has enormous mangrove and seagrass potential that's still underutilized.

4. Riau Moves Toward ART-TREES: 2.6 Million Hectares of Forest in the Pipeline

Riau is moving to register a forest carbon program covering roughly 2.6 million hectares (including around 1.77 million hectares of peatland) under the ART-TREES standard, through a program called "Green for Riau." Important caveat: this is still at the Concept Note stage, which has been approved by the central government — it's not yet officially registered under ART-TREES. Next steps include preparing the Registration Document and setting up monitoring systems. Still, a significant move given the sheer scale involved.

(Sources: Tempo, Ecobiz Asia)

That's the quick recap for now! Tomorrow Cleanomic will be covering day two of ICBS 2026 live from Bali — if you're there too, come say hi! If not, keep an eye on Cleanomic's stories and posts for real-time updates from the summit.

See you in Bali! 🌴🌊

#CuanLestari #ICBS2026 #IndonesiaCarbon #EcolawgicInBali