Institution for promoting decarbonization / Joint statement from AZEC leaders
On December 18th, a summit meeting of 11 countries participating in the Asia Zero Emission Community, which aims to promote energy conversion towards decarbonization through cooperation among Asian countries, was held at the Prime Minister’s Office, and the joint statement was adopted.
In the joint statement, AZEC leaders committed to the establishment of the Asia Zero Emission Center, a core institution that will provide practical support for AZEC cooperation, and the promotion of transition financing necessary for the transition to a decarbonized society. The Asia Zero Emission Center will be established within the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), an international research institute located in Indonesia.
The joint statement emphasizes the importance of transition finance which supplies the necessary funds for energy conservation and fuel conversion to industries that have difficulty decarbonizing their operations in a single leap, and stated the commitment to expand investment through the AZEC framework.
According to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japanese companies expand ing their business in Asia are called for manufacturing the products that utilize green electricity derived from renewable energy by their customers. In Southeast Asia, where the energy source relies on fossil fuels and currently facing limitations in purchasing renewable energy, support will be provided to improve environment for utilizing renewable energy in industrial parks of Japanese companies towards zero emission.
It will also be advantage for each country to encourage investment from foreign companies. Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida emphasized at the summit meeting to take the lead for the development of next-generation technologies such as perovskite solar cell, offshore wind, hydrogen and CCS(Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage), as well as the establishment of legal frameworks. He also described the Asia Zero Emission Center as a venue to share Japan’s technologies and expertise with Asia, and to advance policy coordination such as the formulation of decarbonization roadmaps and the study of system improvements. He also called for the development of a gigantic decarbonization market to attract funds from all over the world in Asia, where 4,000 trillion yen is needed for decarbonization.