As the Sustainable Development Goals move steadily towards the year 2030, Indonesia has another plan in fruition: the development of the new capital city named Nusantara in a hilly and forestry area in East Kalimantan.

The new capital city, in a way, has currently become the government’s projected utopia of a sustainable and futuristic city, as 70% of the area in the new capital will be reserved as green areas to be in line with Indonesia’s net zero carbon emissions target and 100% new renewable energy by 2060.

With all its good intention, Nusantara needs to be developed in such a way that it would not move the environmental and sustainability concerns of Jakarta—the current capital city—to the new capital. The plan needs to address the potential issues of rising carbon emissions due to inter-island flights, deforestation, endangered biodiversity, or responsible land use. Conversely, a “blank canvas” that is Nusantara can provide an opportunity to implement the 2030 agenda on a clean slate.

Finally, the ongoing development of Nusantara will assess Indonesia’s commitment to most global and regional policy roundtables on sustainability. The MGG National Network Conference Indonesia 2022 convenes alumni from the MGG Academy since 2007 and other actors across all sectors to harvest ideas and alternative approaches in balancing development and sustainability in the new capital city.

The conference is jointly organised by the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in the framework of the Managing Global Governance (MGG) programme with financial support from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).