We, the 26 undersigned organizations, urge Japanese leaders to stop derailing Asia’s energy transition by prolonging and expanding the use of fossil fuels through the Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) platform. Communities in Southeast Asia have been hit hardest and worst by the impacts of the climate crisis and by Japanese-financed fossil fuel projects. We demand that Japan shift its support from fossil fuels to community-supported renewable energy systems.
Earlier this week, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba visited Vietnam and the Philippines to strengthen relations with the two countries, raising AZEC, and the fossil fuel-based technologies it includes, as a vehicle for Japan and ASEAN countries to collaborate on energy and decarbonization projects. Starting this weekend, former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will lead a delegation of lawmakers to visit Indonesia and Malaysia, Special Envoy of the Prime Minister and Supreme Advisor to the Parliamentary Association of AZEC.
Japan is focusing its diplomatic efforts on selling AZEC to Southeast Asian nations, but this fossil-fueled initiative will not contribute to the region’s energy security or its path to zero emissions. Asian nations should take cautious steps to avoid getting onto Japan’s energy derailment track.
AZEC promotes dangerous gas dependence
The science is clear that gas power must be phased out by 2035 in advanced economies and by 2045 in the rest of the world to avert a climate catastrophe. Despite Japan’s declining gas demand, the country plans to continue contracting huge volumes of gas to resell to other Asian countries for corporate profit. Japan is the world’s largest provider of international public finance for LNG export capacity projects built from 2012 to 2022. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries leads the global market share for gas turbines, and benefits from the continued use of gas and its derivatives.
The greenhouse gas footprint of LNG is 33% greater than that of coal when considering its entire supply chain and methane emissions. It is also an unreliable energy source as geopolitics affects its availability, and it is prone to extreme price volatility. Bangladesh, for example, faced blackouts when Asian LNG prices rose by 390% following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. By promoting LNG, AZEC encourages countries to invest in a polluting, expensive, and unreliable energy source.
The recent Peninsular Gas Utilisation Pipeline explosion in Malaysia highlights the harm of gas projects that contribute immensely to global warming and impose dangerous health risks to local communities. 22 local civil society organizations called for Malaysia to phase out fossil gas and prioritize energy efficiency and renewables.
Japanese financed-coal and gas power plants have left a legacy of harm on communities and ecosystems while exacerbating the climate crisis. Those most impacted by the wildfires, sea level rises, heavy rain, and extreme heat caused by the crisis are vulnerable populations.
Japan is promoting technologies that prolong the use of gas and coal
In addition to gas, AZEC also promotes fossil fuel-based technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS), hydrogen-blending, and ammonia and biomass co-firing with coal. In fact, 35% of the memorandums of understanding signed under the AZEC initiative up till August 2024 are such fossil fuel-based technologies and projects. Only 7% of the agreements are related to wind and/or solar power. These fossil fuel-based technologies will only prolong the use of fossil fuels, harming local communities at a time when renewable energy solutions are reliable, available, and cheaper.
AZEC pursues multiple projects to replace coal and gas by co-firing them with ammonia, biomass, or hydrogen. However, co-firing is expensive and will exacerbate financial problems for already debt-burdened countries. The abatement cost of 20% ammonia co-firing is up to four times more expensive than using solar and wind to displace coal from the power grids in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Not only is it expensive, but burning coal and ammonia in equal parts – an impossible feat with today’s technology – would still emit about as much CO2 as a gas-fired combined cycle power station.
CCS is another technology that has delivered minuscule mitigation to date, despite its five decades of investments, with installed projects capable of capturing only 0.1% of annual global emissions. The IPCC ranks CCS as one of the least effective, most expensive measures to reduce emissions. Yet, CCS is a prominent feature under AZEC. In an especially egregious project under AZEC, Pertamina, the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC), and the Japan Petroleum Exploration Corporation (JAPEX) are conducting CO2 injection tests in the Sukowati oil field in Indonesia. AZEC’s aims are clear when it includes projects to pump out more oil at a time when we need to phase out fossil fuels.
In the Paiton coal-fired power plants in Indonesia, AZEC attempts to test both co-firing technology and CCS. PT PLN Nusantara Power (PLN-NP) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries push for co-firing with biomass, while PLN-NP and Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation (TESS) promote carbon capture. The Paiton coal power plants, which have been operating for decades, need to be retired as soon as possible, having caused serious impacts on local communities’ health and on the livelihoods of farmers and fishing communities.
Also under AZEC, Malaysia’s Petronas and Japan’s Mitsui & Co., as well as Chubu Electric Power Co. and BP Berau Ltd., are forging ahead with risky CCS projects, planning to store carbon captured in and shipped from Japan in Sarawak, Malaysia and Tangguh in Indonesia, respectively. Studies have shown that seismicity induced by dumping carbon underground can be a serious hazard, which can be difficult to evaluate, predict, or control. Carbon pipelines are also extremely dangerous, as ruptures in the US have caused poisonous CO2 leakages, resulting in hospitalizations.
Southeast Asia does not need fossil fuels
The surest path to ensuring energy security in Asia is the rapid, just development of renewable energy. Over 99% of solar and wind potential in Southeast Asia remains untapped. The wealthiest governments, like Japan, have an opportunity and an obligation to help increase the pace and scale of renewables buildout in the region.
In the Philippines, there is a clear path for going 100% renewable. Thinktanks have shown that the country can phase out coal-fired power in the power sector by 2035, and almost entirely from gas by 2040, without relying on CCS and other fossil fuel-based technologies.
For Malaysia, scaling up renewables would be the most economic pathway to reach net zero by 2050. According to a recent study, retrofitting coal and gas power plants for ammonia co-firing or hydrogen blending in Malaysia is more expensive and less effective in abating emissions than scaling up renewables. Similar challenges apply to using CCS at thermal plants as well.
Japan has an opportunity to shift its support from fossils to renewables
As the world’s 5th largest emitter of greenhouse gases and one of the world’s richest countries, Japan has an obligation to support a fast, fair, and funded phase out of fossil fuels and support a just and equitable transition to community-centered renewable energy. We call on Japan to end its financing for fossil fuels and to support the just transition to renewable energy that Southeast Asia and our planet deserve.
Signatories:
Artivist Network
Asian Energy Network (AEN)
Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD)
Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS)
Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED)
Coastal Livelihood and Environmental Action Network (CLEAN)
Dhoritri Rokhhay Amra (DHORA)
Don’t Gas Asia
Friends of the Earth Japan
Fossil Free Japan
Greenpeace Malaysia
Indus Consortium
Japan Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society (JACSES)
Jaringan Advokasi Tambang (JATAM)
Jubilee Australia Research Centre
Koalisi Rakyat Untuk Hak Atas Air (KRuHA)
Mekong Watch
Monitoring Sustainability of Globalisation
Oil Change International
Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ)
RimbaWatch
Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) / Friends of the Earth Malaysia
Trend Asia
Urgewald
Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia (WALHI) / Friends of the Earth Indonesia
Waterkeepers Bangladesh