TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged to lead efforts to simultaneously achieve decarbonisation, economic growth and energy security in Asia, an ambitious goal he set Monday at a regional climate summit attended by Southeast Asian leaders.
Kishida told the summit of the Asia Zero Emission Community, or AZEC, that the initiative will create “a new, huge decarbonisation market in Asia that will attract global capital.”
Decarbonisation in Asia will require JPY4,000 trillion, Kishida said, and promised to establish a new organisation to support AZEC countries in their effort to implement policies needed to achieve carbon neutrality.
Leaders of nine member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations except Myanmar, in addition to Australia, expressed commitment to cooperate toward achieving carbon neutrality. The summit was held one day after Japan hosted a special summit Sunday commemorating 50 years of ties with ASEAN.
As part of the AZEC initiative, Japan is offering to help other members with technologies to cut emissions, including co-firing technology using ammonia or hydrogen, as well as bendable and more mobile solar panels.
Kishida said Japan will cooperate with AZEC members in setting a decarbonisation roadmap and other measures, while also offering support in funding, technology and human resources by establishing the Asia Zero Emission Centre in Indonesia.
Japan has achieved 20 per cent emissions reduction and is on course to meet the targeted 46 per cent by 2030, saying it will achieve its net-zero goal by boosting renewables as the main source of power, utilising nuclear power and taking other measures.
Japan has faced criticism from environmental groups for not setting a timeline to stop using fossil fuel. Kishida, at the COP28 summit in Dubai, promised that Japan will end new construction at home of unabated coal fired power plants, in a show of clearer determination than in the past toward achieving net-zero.
Kishida has also pledged that Japan will issue the world’s first government transition bond with international certification. Japanese officials say Japan aims to fund JPY20 trillion over the next 10 years to promote private sector investment worth JPY150 trillion.
Japan will contribute to the expansion of lending capacity totalling about USD9 billion through the provision of credit enhancements to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, and will also make a separate contribution of the new fund of the African Development Bank, Kishida said.
