In Indonesia, the efforts to combat global warming and to reduce greenhouse gas emission have been carried out through the laws providing a legal basis for action. The larger sources of greenhouse gas emissions are land use and peat and forest fire; only about 19 per cent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions are tied to fossil fuel. Faced with such complex challenges, efforts must be made to change agricultural and forestry practices while steps are taken to check the growth in energy-based emissions as the economy and population expand and energy consumption increase. Despite huge potential of various renewable energy sources across the country, the government still focuses heavily on exploring and exploiting its fossil fuel resources (oil and gas in particular). This is not unique to Indonesia; having considerable fossil fuel resources has been a barrier to exploring renewable energy in many countries. Hydropower, wind, solar, and ocean currents could be used for electricity, but this potential is just beginning to be recognized. The focus of the study has been to observe how an energy transitions towards greater use of renewable energy could be socially and politically accepted in Indonesia.