Private Vehicles and Trucks Contribute the Largest Pollution in Indonesia

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The land transportation sector remains the largest contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Indonesia. The high dependence of the population on private vehicles based on fossil fuels is cited as the main factor exacerbating this condition. “Land transportation contributes almost 90 percent of total GHG emissions in the transportation sector, precisely around 89.9 percent,” said Meinarti in Jakarta on Wednesday (8/4/2026). Overall, the transportation sector contributes around 22 to 27 percent of total energy sector emissions. This figure is equivalent to around 12.2 percent to 15 percent of total national emissions. The dominance of emissions from land transportation is inseparable from the high number of private vehicles in Indonesia. Currently, the number of motorised vehicles is recorded at around 164.5 million units, with the majority being motorcycles and private cars. Dependence on fossil fuel-based vehicles also has a significant impact on increasing carbon emissions. In fact, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from private vehicles are said to have exceeded 108 million tonnes per year. On the other hand, the contribution of public transportation remains very small. The number of buses, for example, is only around 0.2 percent of the total vehicle population, indicating the low role of mass transportation in public mobility. “This condition shows that the public is still very dependent on private vehicles. This is one of the main causes of high emissions in the transportation sector,” said Meinarti. In addition, the use of diesel-based trucks in the logistics sector and the suboptimal public transportation services further increase the emission burden. This makes efforts to reduce emissions increasingly challenging. To provide an overview, here is the composition of emission contributions in the land transportation sector based on vehicle types: Amid the dominance of private vehicles, the logistics sector also has its own problems. Trucks, whose numbers are relatively small, actually become one of the largest emission contributors. Urban Mobility Manager of WRI Indonesia, Dimas Fadhil, revealed that the truck population in Indonesia is only around 4 percent of the total motorised vehicles. However, its contribution to emissions reaches around 40.56 percent. “The number of trucks is perhaps only around 4 percent of the total national vehicles. But from our calculations, its contribution reaches around 40.56 percent of emissions in the transportation sector,” said Dimas. This disparity occurs due to the operational characteristics of trucks that rely on solar fuel and are used with high intensity for goods distribution. In fact, almost 90 percent of national logistics movement still depends on this mode. In addition to impacting the environment, the high use of diesel trucks also burdens the state budget through solar fuel subsidies amounting to tens of trillions of rupiah.