Japan plans to host a leaders' meeting on reducing carbon emissions with most ASEAN members and Australia in December, Japanese government sources said Sunday.
The summit in Tokyo will be held under the Asia Zero Emission Community framework launched by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's government last year, aimed at promoting decarbonization in the fast-growing Asian region.
Southeast Asia is a center of economic and emissions growth, and efforts to decarbonize will have a huge impact on regional and global progress on climate action, climate and energy experts pointed out.
All members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations apart from Myanmar have joined the framework, along with Japan and Australia. ASEAN also groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
In March, ministers of the 11 countries participating in the framework gathered in Tokyo for their first meeting.
Kishida announced the AZEC concept in January last year to promote decarbonization in the region and cooperation in advancing the transition to clean energy.
