Jakarta. Indonesia has just earned Japanese backing for its goal to reach net zero emissions by 2060.

The Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) brings together Japan, and all ASEAN members except Myanmar, and Australia. AZEC zeroes in on helping Asian countries cut down their emissions. The group’s members had recently sent its ministers for a series of talks in Jakarta. Potential Japanese support for Asia’s decarbonization -- including through feasibility studies -- was high up on the agenda.

The AZEC ministerial meeting resulted in the signing of around 70 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) related to decarbonization projects in Asia. Freshly appointed Investment Minister Rosan Roeslani said that 21 of those signed MoUs were cooperation projects between Indonesia and Japan. 

“We are looking forward to receiving new support from the private sector in our undertaking,” Rosan told reporters on the sidelines of the forum on Wednesday. 

Rosan did not give the specifics of these agreed projects. But earlier that day, senior minister Airlangga Hartarto said that Indonesia had proposed projects related to blue ammonia and electric vehicle (EV), among others. Neither the Indonesian and Japanese governments also revealed the total amount of how much money would Tokyo plan on spending to help Indonesia decarbonize as part of the agreed MoUs. 

Shinichi Kihara, a director-general at the Japanese Trade Ministry, said that the signed 70 MoUs covered a variety of technologies, including solar and geothermal power generation.

“These [70] MoUs are in the form of feasibility studies and demonstration projects. There are also projects that receive government funding or support. That is the overall picture of the MoUs,” Kihara said.

Later that day, gas giant BP Berau announced that it had signed a deal with Japanese electric utilities provider Chubu for a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at the AZEC meeting. BP Berau operates the Tangguh liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in West Papua. BP Berau and Chubu have completed a feasibility study related to the Nagoya CCS project. The recently signed MoU will explore the possibility of establishing a CCS value chain that spans from Japan’s Nagoya Port to the Tangguh field.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo late last year flew to Tokyo for the AZEC summit. Jokowi told the conference at the time that ASEAN’s energy transition needed $29.4 trillion in funding by 2050.

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