Japan, Australia to cooperate to create hydrogen supply chain
Tokyo, Mar 4 (EFE).- Japan announced Saturday the launch in collaboration with Australia of a hydrogen supply chain within the framework of an initiative to accelerate the reduction of polluting emissions in Asia.
The supply chain will connect the Australian state of Victoria with the Japanese city of Kawasaki, in the west of the country, government sources told state news agency Kyodo.
“In Asia we should have as many energy options as possible, and hydrogen and ammonia are options,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Saturday in a video message at the first ministerial meeting of the Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC for its English acronym.)
The AZEC framework, focused on regional energy transformation, is driven by Japan and was announced in November during a visit to Japan by Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
Japan has been betting for a long time on the implementation of the widespread use of hydrogen as an energy source and Kishida said he wanted to expand the supply networks throughout, cooperating with the region’s countries, calling it as a good option in a region prone to natural disasters.
Eleven nations participated Saturday in Tokyo in the meeting, at the end of which they issued a joint declaration in which they said they recognized “that the acceleration of the energy transition in the Asian region is key to achieving the objectives” of the declaration. Paris climate, Kyodo reported.
Australia and the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with the exception of Myanmar, have joined the AZEC framework, but not China and India, the world’s first and third largest emitters of carbon dioxide.
Southeast Asia is currently the world’s largest emissions and economic growth center and decarbonisation initiatives could have a major impact on regional and global progress in addressing the climate crisis.
The East Asia and Pacific region is also key in the fight against climate change, accounting for around a third of global greenhouse gas emissions and 60 percent of global coal consumption.
The meeting participants also agreed to promote investments in infrastructure for decarbonization, such as electrical networks for clean energy and the strengthening of human resources training in the matter. EFE
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