Page 13 - AsianOil Week 10 2023

AsianOil ENERGY TRANSITION AsianOil

Japan pledges financial, tech support

for ASEAN decarbonisation

JAPAN JAPAN has pledged financial and technical As G7 chair, Japan will hold a ministerial
support to other ASEAN nations as the region conference in Sapporo in mid-April to focus on
The value of the begins to shift away from fossil fuels and transi- climate, energy and environment and discuss
assistance was not tion to cleaner energies. ‘a realistic energy transition’, according to the
disclosed. “Japan will take a lead in providing generous report. The G7 will meet in Hiroshima 19-21
support in finance, technology and personal May. During the meetings, Japan intends to
resources to help Asia’s decarbonisation,” Jap- stress the importance of investment in clean,
anese Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura low-carbon natural gas and LNG, and promote
stated during the first ministerial meeting of the the development of hydrogen and ammonia
Asia Zero Emissions Community (AZEC) in projects.
Tokyo on 4 March. AZEC was established last year at the behest
Japan relies on a variety of fossil fuel imports of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida with
to meet its energy needs and is therefore keen the intention of moving the region towards
to establish a hydrogen economy free from car- decarbonisation and co-operating with energy
bon emissions. Japan intends to use its position transition measures. A number of ASEAN
as chair of the Group of Seven (G7) countries members attended the AZEC session. The group
to encourage members of the Association of includes Japan, Australia, Brunei, Cambodia,
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to decarbon- Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, The Philippines, Sin-
ise their economies and strengthen measures to gapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
fight climate change. A joint statement issued at the end of their
“As many countries have expressed wishes meeting called for the group to financially sup-
for support from Japan, we would like to take a port investments in decarbonisation and to
strong leadership in supporting them in tech- build clean energy supply chains. One project
nology, finance, including investment from pri- expected to come from the meeting is the for-
vate sector, and human resources development,” mation of a joint venture between Japan’s Iwatani
Nishimura was quoted as saying in a report by Corporation and Electric Power Development
Reuters. that would see the development of a hydrogen
However, Nishimura did not specify the value supply chain between Victoria State in Australia
of the assistance that Japan it will supply. and the Japanese industrial city of Kawasaki. ™

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