When the energy transition confronts difficult economic conditions within a country, addressing the transition’s unequal impact becomes both more challenging and more imperative. In Indonesia, with an economy recently described as a “ticking time bomb”, coal mining has long been the main driver of GDP in certain regencies and provinces. Pursuit of the energy transition in such places raises the tricky political question of how to support economic diversification and boost economic growth, in these areas while also combating climate change.