More than a third of decarbonisation-related agreements Japan has signed with Southeast Asian countries involve the use of fossil fuel technologies, risking the prolonged use of dirty energy, a new study found.
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Of the 158 memoranda of understanding (MOUs) that Japan has signed with partner countries under the Asia Zero Emission Community initiative (AZEC), 35 per cent use technologies tied to liquified natural gas (LNG), ammonia co-firing with coal plants, as well as carbon capture and storage (CCS), said international research organisation Zero Carbon Analytics.
A similar ratio of agreements – 34 per cent – are tied to renewables and electrification technologies, such as solar, wind, geothermal and green hydrogen. However, only 11 of these agreements or 7 per cent of the total involve wind and solar, according to a Zero Carbon Analytics report published on Friday.
“Fossil-based technologies, such as ammonia co-firing, CCS, grey and blue hydrogen, and LNG have much higher lifecycle emissions than solar and wind,” said Amy Kong, researcher at Zero Carbon Analytics.
As such, the prominence of these technologies across AZEC agreements raises concerns about higher decarbonisation costs and climate impacts. The proposed technologies will result in a “slower and more expensive path to decarbonisation for the region,” said Kong.
“[This] risks derailing national power sector emissions targets set out in the International Energy Agency’s 2050 net zero scenario,” she said.
AZEC, which was officially launched in 2023 with 11 partner countries across Asia Pacific, has been criticised in Indonesia for promoting what environmentalists say are “false climate solutions”, especially as the projects do not involve public participation. The organisations is backed by the Japanese government, which said that AZEC will pave the way for decarbonisation in Asian countries while achieving economic growth and energy security.
Zero Carbon Analytics found that among Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia has signed the most agreements with Japan via AZEC, making up 43 per cent of agreements. Thailand and Malaysia are the second and third largest signatories to agreements with Japan, at 15 per cent and 11 per cent of total agreements respectively.
Among the agreements under AZEC are joint studies on carbon capture and storage sites in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Similar studies and collaborations were agreed on to promote the development and use of hydrogen and ammonia in energy systems.
However, Zero Carbon Analytics citing research by BloombergNEF said that using ammonia at higher co-firing rates would be more expensive than other low-emission technologies, such as solar and wind, in Japan.
”The IPCC also found that CCS is less effective at reducing emissions and more expensive than actions such as fuel switching (electrification), improving energy efficiency, material efficiency and enhanced recycling,” the report said.
The new findings mirror another recent report by environmental advocacy group Oil Change International, which found that billions in public funds had been “wasted” on carbon capture projects as they failed to deliver tangible emissions reductions.
Oil Change International had also criticised Japan’s continued reliance on fossil fuel-based technologies. “Japan attempts to position itself as a leader in the region’s energy transition, but its prime strategy is to promote dangerous, unproven technologies for the benefit of Japanese corporate interests,” said the group’s report, published last month.
Worryingly, Japan-backed projects in Northern Australia also risk harming aboriginal people who reside near these projects, said the group.
“AZEC not only prolongs our dependence on dirty energy, but also jeopardizes the livelihoods of communities on the frontlines of climate change, delays our progress toward clean energy, and threatens to lock us into a carbon-intensive future,” Hikmat Soeriatanuwijaya, the organisation’s senior partnership and outreach officer said, commenting on Zero Carbon Analytics’ new report.
Other experts say that Japan can still improve its standing as Asia’s decarbonisation partner by changing tack.
“It’s not that Japan is anti-renewable. It’s just slow to move,” said Dr Wesley Morgan, research associate at the Institute of Climate Risk and Response at Australia’s University of New South Wales, Sydney. In fact, Tokyo aims to become the world’s top producer of offshore wind energy and recent models suggest Japan could achieve 90 per cent clean energy by 2035, he said.
“If Japan took this route, we would likely see its Australian investments shift from gas to green exports,” said Morgan.
At the moment, however, AZEC’s fossil fuel-heavy interests threatens the initiative’s credibility and by extension, Japan’s reliability as a partner for decarbonisation in the region, said Hanna Hakko, senior associate at London-based think tank E3G.
“Asian cooperation toward decarbonisation is necessary and important, but Japan’s support would serve the region far better by enabling the growth of renewable energy to improve energy security, strengthen clean economic growth, and alleviate climate risks,” she said.
Zero Carbon Analytics’ report emerges a few weeks after a study by Singapore-based research centre ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute found that Southeast Asian citizens believe that Japan leads the world for climate action, overtaking the European Union and the United States in the survey for the first time.
