On 21 August 2024, at the sidelines of the 2nd Asia Zero Emissions Community (“AZEC“) Ministerial Meeting, it was announced that Singapore and Japan have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (“MOC“) to pursue collaboration on Carbon Capture and Storage (“CCS“).
By way of background, AZEC is a multilateral platform that aims to facilitate regional collaboration to pursue energy transition pathways and further Asia’s decarbonisation trajectory. The AZEC partner countries are Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
CCS is the process of capturing at point source, transporting and storing of carbon dioxide in geological storage locations to reduce anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. Both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and International Energy Agency recognise that CCS has a potential role to lower emissions in hard-to-abate sectors. However, its implementation requires that technological, economic, regulatory, and carbon accountability challenges be ironed out.
Under the MOC, Singapore and Japan will:
- facilitate knowledge exchange on best practices for cross-border CCS and the sharing of insights on CCS technologies; and
- pool together expertise and resources to accelerate the adoption of CCS in the region.
During the 2nd AZEC Ministerial Meeting, Second Minister for Trade and Industry Dr Tan See Leng highlighted that Singapore is keen to work with Japan to develop and adopt common standards for CCS and thereby create a more interoperable market for CCS solutions in the region.
Click the link below for further information:
- Ministry of Trade and Industry (“MTI“) Press Release titled “Singapore and Japan Deepen Collaboration Opportunities on Carbon Capture and Storage” (available on the MTI website at mti.gov.sg)
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