Climate finance beyond paper: Can Bali turn promises into actions?

This article was published in The Jakarta Post and currently only available in English.

The recently launched Bali Climate Financing Platform introduces a new model for translating road maps into implementation and if successful, it could be emulated in other provinces to safeguard regional economies toward building climate resilience.

The international community talks about unlocking climate finance, yet the lock remains stubbornly shut. Despite endless conferences, reports and declarations, climate finance often struggles to translate into real, investable projects on the ground, especially at the subnational level.

Take Bali. Marketed as the last paradise on Earth, the island province has become a front line of climate risk. Temperatures have risen 0.7 degree Celsius in the past four decades, triggering uncertain weather that disrupts daily life and the economy.

On Sept. 9, Bali recorded 385 millimeters of rainfall within 24 hours, which flooded parts of the island and paralyzing the provincial capital Denpasar, its only city. The COVID-19 lockdown had already shown Bali’s fragility in 2020 when its GDP contracted 9.34 percent, the steepest decline among all provinces in Indonesia.

These shocks underscored how vulnerable an economy dominated by tourism is and why climate resilience is no longer optional.

Ironically, this vulnerability persists despite Bali having an impressive stack of plans: its Net Zero 2045 vision, set 15 years ahead of the national target, clean energy regulations, an electric vehicle adoption action plan and waste management strategies. It has even developed the Regional Low-Carbon Development Plan (RPRKD).

As with most of subnational entities in Indonesia, these documents usually stop at the planning stage without clear studies on feasibility, financial structuring or risk mitigation. Projects remain aspirational rather than investable. On paper, Bali is ahead, but on the ground, implementation lags.

Indonesia’s broader climate finance gap illustrates the challenge. The country needs around US$285 billion by 2030 to meet emission targets, yet only $4.7 billion has been mobilized, according to OECD reports. Low-carbon initiatives are still seen as too costly, technologies lack scale and financing mechanisms rarely reach provinces.

Regional administrations like Bali’s often lack the institutional capacity, skilled labor and project preparation tools to convince financiers. Meanwhile, international and national funds remain centralized through PT Sarana Multi Infrastruktur (SMI) or the Environmental Fund Management Agency (BPDLH), with little clarity on how regions can benefit directly.

This is the lock that needs opening.

In August, the Bali provincial administration officially launched the Bali Climate Financing Platform (BCFP) during Bali Climate Week 2025. Far from another glossy declaration, BCFP is designed as a critical missing mechanism: a translation platform that converts ambitious road maps into projects that banks, investors and development partners can confidently back.

Positioned as a “thinking partner” between government, business and finance, BCFP seeks to turn commitments into a pipeline of investable projects.

Consider Bali’s plan to electrify its tourism transport sector. The conversion of 1,000 taxis into EVs has stalled due to high upfront costs and the absence of charging infrastructure. BCFP could bundle demand from taxi operators, connect with manufacturers and design revenue models supported by green financing to make the project bankable.

Similarly, the Electric Bus Rapid Transit (E-BRT) project was left in limbo after grant funding from the Millennium Challenge Corporation stopped. With proper structuring, BCFP can help identify new partners, from multilateral banks to private investors, and repackage the E-BRT as a commercially viable project aligned with Bali’s decarbonization road map.

BCFP is anchored in a clear institutional setup that links national, provincial and financial actors. Initiated by the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) to enhance the post-pandemic economy, the Bali Economic Transformation (Bali Kerthi Development Fund) acts as the operational hub, connecting national priorities with the province’s medium-term strategic program through the Regional Development Planning Agency (Bappeda).

National financiers such as SMI and the BPDLH evaluate the project's feasibility and channel resources. Funding may come through bonds, grants, sukuk or regional loans, or dedicated funding from the Bali Kerthi Development Fund that structures credit to flow through communities as well as direct support to project delivery units. This ensures that provinces become part of an integrated project pipeline with clear responsibilities, diversified funding and accountability back to the governor.

BCFP advances through a structured project cycle, starting with strategic studies that translate Bali’s road maps into priority areas, such as reviving the E-BRT or building EV charging corridors.

Pre-feasibility studies provide technical, financial and social assessments. Structuring then defines ownership, revenue streams and risk sharing. Projects are packaged into investment proposals that meet international standards and undergo market sounding to attract multilateral development banks, blended finance or the green climate fund. The final stage is financial closing, where public and private capital converge to launch implementation.

This matters because Bali’s challenge is not the absence of plans but of investable projects. Subnational governments often draft ambitious road maps that fail to pass investment committees.

If successful, BCFP will do more than sharpen project preparation. It will give national institutions like SMI and the BPDLH, the gatekeepers of international climate funds, a strong reason to channel resources to Bali. Provinces will no longer be passive endpoints to national policy but credible originators of bankable projects.

For Bali, this is not bureaucratic housekeeping but survival economics. With over 80 percent of jobs tied to tourism, even modest disruptions from floods, erosion or blackouts ripple across livelihoods. A single extreme weather event can erase months of income for small businesses and communities. Unlocking climate finance at the provincial level is therefore essential to safeguard the very economy that keeps Bali afloat.

Everyone may keep talking about unlocking climate finance, but the lock will remain shut without a connecting mechanism like the BCFP providing the key. Bali’s initiative is more than another plan on paper; it is a serious attempt to turn promises into projects and commitments into capital.

If it works here, it could open doors for other regions in Indonesia waiting to move from talk to action.

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Nirarta Samadhi is country director of World Resources Institute (WRI) Indonesia, where Haiqal Rizaldi is Bali transport decarbonization project lead and Alvitto Didha is a sustainable finance and business analyst. The views expressed are personal.