Indonesia Targets Full Carbon Market Launch by June 2026

TrustVal Team  |  23 April 2026

Indonesia confirmed it will bring its national carbon market into full operation by end of June 2026, with large-scale international transactions expected to begin in July — a milestone that could unlock one of the world's largest natural carbon sinks for international credit trading.

The rollout is anchored in Presidential Regulation No. 110 of 2025, which establishes the legal framework for carbon economic value instruments and national GHG emission controls. After two years of limited liquidity since the market's initial launch in February 2023, the June 2026 full activation targets mandatory participation from high-emitting industries and integration of forest-based REDD+ credits into international carbon trade flows.

Scale of the Opportunity

Indonesia holds approximately 125 million hectares of tropical forest — making it one of the three largest forest carbon sinks on earth, alongside Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Historically, Indonesia's forests have been subject to deforestation pressure and peat fires that release enormous volumes of stored carbon. A functioning, credible carbon market creates the financial incentive structure to reverse this trajectory.

Indonesia is simultaneously aligning its carbon market governance with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement — opening the door to bilateral ITMO transfers and international credit sales. Vietnam and the Philippines are accelerating similar reforms, confirming a regional shift in the global carbon market's centre of gravity toward Asia-Pacific.

Governance and Article 6 Alignment

The Indonesian government lifted its prior moratorium on international carbon unit sales, aiming to attract international investment and accelerate Article 6 bilateral cooperation. Verra updated its guidance to align VCS project operations with both Article 6 and CORSIA requirements — reflecting growing convergence between the voluntary and compliance market frameworks.

Indonesia's carbon market will cover energy, waste, and forest sectors in its first phase. REDD+ credits, which require forest boundary monitoring, biomass change tracking, and emissions factor verification, represent the highest-volume category — and the most technically demanding from an MRV standpoint.

MRV at Landscape Scale

The central challenge for Indonesia's forest carbon market is verification at landscape scale. Individual project-level audits cannot cost-effectively cover Indonesia's 125 million hectares. The viable path is satellite-based remote sensing integrated with ground-truth sensor networks — the architecture that digital MRV (dMRV) platforms like TrustVal's are specifically designed to enable.

TrustVal Perspective

Indonesia's forest carbon market activation creates direct demand for dMRV infrastructure capable of operating at landscape scale. Satellite data alone is insufficient — it must be integrated with ground sensor networks, edge computing, and standardised verification workflows that satisfy both domestic regulators and international buyers operating under Article 6 and CORSIA requirements. TrustVal's dMRV platform is built for this architecture.