Summit of Asian Countries Pursues Net-zero Emissions, with Different Paths for Each State

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:28 JST, December 18, 2023

The first summit of the Asia Zero Emission Community, which promotes decarbonization in Asia, was held in Tokyo on Monday.

At the meeting, Asian leaders stressed the importance of countries working to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in a realistic way, taking into account their own circumstances, in order to realize a carbon-neutral world.

“Decarbonization is a problem for all of Asia, and we hope to partner with other countries that share AZEC’s philosophy on decarbonization,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at the meeting. The leaders confirmed they would set up in Jakarta the Asia Zero Emissions Center, which is expected to play a leading role in decarbonization work.

Asia gets much of its energy from coal-fired power plants, and accounts for about 60% of global CO2 emissions. The meeting also confirmed that, during the transition to net-zero emissions, efforts will be made to use liquefied natural gas and ammonia, which does not emit CO2 when burned. As part of these efforts, Japan will provide relevant technologies to Asian countries to aid both economic growth and decarbonization.

The AZEC summit was held in conjunction with a special summit of Japan and Association of Southeast Asian Nations member countries.