Part 7/12:
One of Nusantara’s most ambitious goals is to be Indonesia’s first green city, aiming for net-zero carbon emissions. The government plans to plant at least 15 million trees and preserve green spaces covering 75% of urban areas. Yet, critics highlight the paradoxes in this vision: construction of roads, dams, and infrastructure often involves deforestation, habitat destruction, and environmental degradation.
Environmental groups express skepticism, citing Indonesia’s track record of environmental management. The construction has already disturbed local ecosystems, with reports of primates and other wildlife displaced. The mining of nickel for batteries and the use of coal for smelters raise questions about the true environmental costs lurking behind the green rhetoric.