Prime Minister attends first meeting of AZEC leaders

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended the first meeting of the Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) in Tokyo on December 18, which was also attended by leaders from other ASEAN member states, Japan, and Australia, the Government News has reported.

It quoted Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio as affirming the importance of achieving a common goal of “net-zero emissions through various pathways” and of a triple breakthrough of simultaneously achieving “decarbonization, economic growth, and energy security”.

He touched on Japan’s actions towards developing and introducing next-generation GX (Green Transformation) technologies, and expressed his willingness to share Japan’s technologies and experiences through the AZEC platform.

Prime Minister Fumio also proposed action such as policy coordination through the “Asia Zero Emission Center”, to be set up in ERIA (the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia), the establishment of green supply chains through cooperation projects including the development of zero emissions industrial parks, cooperation between business entities by the “AZEC Advocacy Group”, and the promotion of transition finance.

Leaders of AZEC partner countries expressed broad support or the concept of AZEC and their high expectations of its activities.

In his remarks, Prime Minister Chinh highlighted the increasingly devastating impact of climate change, which requires the international community to make real determinations and take concrete actions to achieve net-zero emissions.

He spoke of Vietnam’s actions to realize its climate commitments at COP26, including the formulation and adoption of a national strategy for climate change adaptation, a green growth strategy, the National Power Development Plan VIII (PDP8), the development of 1 million ha of high-quality and low-emissions rice, nationally determined contributions (NDCs), a plan to implement the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), and an announcement of a resource mobilization plan to implement the JETP.

The Prime Minister suggested that AZEC countries focus on research and development, diversify clean energies and new technologies, accelerate technology transfer to ensure broad and affordable access to clean energies, and ensure a clean energy transition in accordance with the actual conditions in each country.

He also underscored the need to speed up climate finance and public-private partnerships (PPPs) to create favorable conditions for developing countries to access preferential loans.

Prime Minister Chinh also called for the strengthening of cooperation in high-quality human resources training, smart governance, and improvements to market institutions.