In December 2025, Indonesia quietly abandoned plans to close the Cirebon-1 coal power plant.

This was no ordinary power plant. Cirebon-1 was supposed to be the centrepiece of a US$21.4 billion (£16.5bn) international deal backed by the US, UK, Japan and the EU to help Indonesia end coal use.

Indonesia’s so-called Just Energy Transition Partnership, or Jet-P, was launched at a G20 summit in Bali in 2022. Similar deals have been struck with South Africa, Vietnam and Senegal. They are widely regarded as the most ambitious attempt at getting international climate finance to end coal use in populous, coal-dependent middle-income countries.

The UK government once touted the Jet-Ps as “a template on how to support just transition around the world”. This refers to efforts to ensure that the phase-out of fossil fuels and phase-in of low-carbon technologies is fair, inclusive and reflects the demands of workers and affected communities.

But if this approach cannot retire a single plant in Indonesia, the world’s fourth largest coal consumer, there is reason to question whether the model itself works. Our research suggests these partnerships are better understood as a cautionary tale.

The idea underpinning the Jet-Ps is elegant in theory: use public money from rich countries to attract private investment for renewable energy projects and closing down coal plants.

Grants from governments and low-cost loans supposedly reduce the risk enough to bring in billions more from banks and asset managers. The public money “unlocks” the private money, and together they fund an........

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