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Indonesia’s long-delayed National Energy Council will seek to deliver a draft of a comprehensive national energy plan to the president in October, Energy Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Friday.

Purnomo, also the council’s executive chairman, said the draft is to take into consideration the president’s energy plan, whether it be Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono or one of his two challengers in the national elections. The plan must be approved by the House of Representatives in February.

“We will have to submit the draft by October, then we will discuss it with the stakeholders including customers and companies,” Purnomo said. “Today is the first meeting of the newly established energy council [also known as DEN]. We are still discussing which areas DEN is going to cover.”

Although the National Energy Council was established under legislation passed in 2007, it wasn’t put in place until earlier this year. The agency is designed to formulate and manage energy policy and the energy outlook, determine mitigation efforts in the event of energy emergencies and monitor policy between sectors.

Purnomo said the council was studying whether it would manage domestic market allocations for the energy sector, including coal, oil and gas.

“At the moment we are still discussing it,” he said.

The world, he said, has reached consensus that carbon dioxide emissions should be limited to 400 ppm.

“To achieve the target, we need to improve the efficiency of our energy sector, diversify our energy sources with new and renewable energy and apply carbon capture storage.”

Council members include the ministers of agriculture, finance, national planning, industry, transportation, environment and research and technology.

To balance the government officials, the council also has eight members from the private sector, including academics, environmentalists, consumer advocates and industry and technology representatives.

Herman Darnel Ibrahim, who represents industry on the council, said securing energy supplies should be a priority.

Priagung Rahmanto, an analyst with the privately funded Reforminer Institute, said in a text message that he doubted the council would be effective because it didn’t have the power to execute and implement the plan it was formulating.

“The functions of DEN and Bakoren [the Energy Coordination Body founded in 1980, which DEN replaced] are actually very similar,” Priagung said. “The members formulate energy policy but the council won’t execute it. Energy policy actually already exists so it is better that the Energy Ministry formulate and execute policy itself instead of waiting for the result from DEN.”