Jakarta, 24 June 2023: The Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) of Japan with the support of Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) held the first Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) Senior Official Meeting (ASOM) held in Mulia Hotel Jakarta, Indonesia. The meeting was attended by ASOM members from Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam, as well as representatives from international organizations such as the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) and ERIA, private companies such as PETRONAS Malaysia and research and development agency NEDO Indonesia.

Opening remarks were made by Ryo Minami, Deputy Commissioner for International Affairs and Director General for International Policy on Carbon Neutrality, the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) at Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). He spoke of the three concepts of the AZEC Joint Statement: decarbonization and energy security, decarbonization for realizing economic growth in Asia, and one goal but various pathways to achieving it.

'The common goal we should aim for is carbon neutrality, but the pathways toward the goal should be diverse and practical, according to the actual economic and energy structures of each country', he said.

Arifin Tasrif, Indonesia's Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, expressed his appreciation for the initiative, which is a resounding testament of Indonesia’s determination toward net-zero, which is a common problem in the region. He reiterated the 1st AZEC Ministerial Meeting consensus, to act on: promoting energy efficiency and energy conversion technologies; enhancing the deployment of renewable energy and energy management technologies; enhancing the upstream development of natural gas and LNG; developing carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) and carbon recycling in the industrial sector; developing hydrogen and ammonia to help the industrial sector; and developing a sustainable global supply chain of rare earth materials. The Minister said he hoped the AZEC forum would unlock international cooperation in supporting these targets, through sustainable financing, joint ventures, and knowledge transfers between AZEC partner countries.

In his opening remarks Professor Tetsuya Watanabe, special advisor to ERIA’s outgoing President Professor Hidetoshi Nishimura, and the next President of ERIA, stressed the organization's commitment and contributions to the Asia Energy Transition Initiative by emphasizing the need for regional cooperation of knowledge sharing and best practices in such fields as policy strategy formulation, development, demonstration, the deployment of decarbonization technologies, and appropriate finance for transition technologies. This aligns with the AZEC concept aimed at a clean, sustainable, just, affordable, and inclusive energy transition toward carbon neutrality/net-zero emissions in the Asian region.

Dr. Nuki Agya Utama, the Executive Director of ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE), agreed that the 1st ASOM has strongly importance for strengthening collaboration between ASEAN and Japan to work together on reducing emission and achieving our NEZ target. The AZEC focuses on decarbonization efforts are aligned with the 41st ASEAN Senior Official Meeting on Energy (SOME) that it is crucial to continue collaboration with direct partners and international organization including METI Japan to support the Eight (8th) ASEAN Energy Outlook (AEO), activities on decarbonization technology roadmap, the ASEAN Energy Management Scheme (AEMAS) Digitalization with ECCJ, Small scale oil refineries with JETRO, and the fifth Cleaner Energy Future Initiative for ASEAN (CEFIA) which will be held back to back with AMEM and AEBF in Bali 2023.