About Asia CCUS Network

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the East Asia Summit (EAS) region are facing tremendous challenges regarding the future energy landscape and how the energy transition will embrace a new architecture – including sound policies and technologies to ensure energy access with affordability, energy security, and energy sustainability.

Given the high share of fossil fuels in the current energy mix of ASEAN and EAS (oil, coal, and natural gas make up almost 80% of the primary energy mix for both the ASEAN and EAS region), the clean use of fossil fuels through the deployment of clean technologies is indispensable for decarbonising emissions in ASEAN and the EAS region. The future energy transition of ASEAN and the EAS region will rely on today’s actions, policies, and investments to change the fossil fuel-based energy system towards a cleaner energy system. But any decisions and energy policy measures to be rolled out during the energy transition need to be weighed against potentially higher energy costs, affordability issues, and energy security risks. The continued use of fossil fuel to steer economic growth in ASEAN and the EAS region will require appropriate technologies to use fossil fuels in responsible and environmentally friendly ways through clean technologies such as clean coal technology and carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS), to decarbonise the region’s emission in the foreseeable future.

At the Fourteenth East Asia Summit Energy Ministers Meeting (14th EAS EMM) held on 20 November 2020, attended by the ministers and senior officials responsible for energy from the EAS participating countries that are also ASEAN Member States (AMS), Australia, the People’s Republic of China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, the Russian Federation, and the United States, the ministers welcomed the continuous efforts by the EAS Energy Cooperation Task Force (ECTF) to foster EAS energy cooperation towards a sustainable energy future. They were pleased with the implementation of concrete initiatives under the three ECTF work streams as well as the other initiatives involving the promotion of hydrogen society, mobility decarbonisation, natural gas, and CCUS. On the initiative to promote CCUS and carbon recycling, the ministers noted the importance of CCUS and carbon recycling in supporting the goals of decarbonisation, recovery, and economic growth. The ministers welcomed the cooperation initiative led by Japan and ERIA to establish the ‘Asia CCUS Network’, which is expected to realise the partnership to help implement knowledge and experience sharing and research activities in the EAS region.