Benefits to Region

CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion, associated with different economic activities, are an important driver of global climate change. The Paris Climate Agreement requires global reducing GHGs emissions as soon as possible. Tremendous efforts are being put into minimizing GHGs emissions, such as using renewable energy resources, energy efficiency, bioenergy, electrification, and hydrogen. With regard to the climate commitment contributed to the global and regional climate agenda at COP-26, more than 110 countries globally have pledged to reach the goal of the Paris Agreement in the next 30 years.  In addition, at COP-27, APEC member economies have identified their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) towards reducing GHG and have reaffirmed their commitments to the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement.  Achieving net-zero GHG emissions integrated with ensuring a secure, affordable, and sustainable manner in the energy sector for serving economic growth has been increasing attention globally, so considering the comprehensive understanding and the political attention to the urgent need for reductions of GHG emissions are necessary.

Owing to high economic growth, the energy demand of APEC Southeast Asia subregion (“SEA”) is expected to grow to almost double with continued reliance of fossil fuels.  From the APEC Energy Demand and Supply Outlook (8th Edition), SEA’s energy demand of fossil fuels grows nearly 60% from 2018 to 2050 in the Reference Scenario, while CO2 emission grows 45% during the same period.  At the same time, SEA economies have pledged for net-zero GHG targets between 2050 and 2065.

Therefore, SEA economies realize that Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) technology is vital to reduce the GHGs emissions in order to meet the pledged targets.

However, understanding and awareness as well as networking and collaboration on CCUS technology are the primary phase to do, leading to accelerating CCS development among APEC economies. The project will be key platform to engage APEC economies and non-APEC parties for building up public-private-government and

government-government cooperation to clarify what the technical/regulation/policy barriers are and what the government/private can do to support. In addition, it is the platform to share research, development, and demonstration and to develop skill and capacity Building.

Eligibility and Fund

Priorities

International Energy Agency (2020) mentioned that the CCUS is the one of the most effective options for allowing many economies to continue using their fossil fuel resources within the efforts being made to mitigate climate change, leading to sustainable and secured energy development. Therefore, improving human resources on CCUS is vital key to build up CCUS network. Furthermore, the network will support to reach goals of APEC, which are 1) To attain sustainable growth and equitable development in the Asia-Pacific region, 2) To reduce economic disparities among APEC economies, and 3) To improve the economic and social well-being of the people. The project aligns to sub-fund on Energy Efficiency, Low Carbon and Energy Resiliency Measures that supports capacity building initiatives contributing to the promotion of energy efficiency and low carbon measures in the APEC region.

Capacity Building

Considering Thailand’s attention to achieve net-zero emission by 2065, Thailand has set strategy and action plans of CCUS to reduce GHG emission at different levels of management. CCUS plays a crucial role in energy sectors for achieving the goals of 38.8 MtCO2e/year emission reduction in 2050 (Carbon Neutrality) and of 61.3 MtCO2e/year emission reduction by 2065 (Net Zero GHG). The Department of Mineral Fuels (DMF) has realized that CCUS is the key to reduce effectively CO2 emissions and to ensure a secure, affordable and more sustainable pathway for the energy sector in Thailand and global. Therefore, DMF has evaluated the 13 CCUS projects in 5 potential areas for CCS deployment based on matching of CO2 point sources and sink that is an important first step  to ensure CCS success. Indonesia and Malaysia are taking similar steps to deploy CCUS for helping to meet the emission targets. In this regard, each economy has the unique challenges and constraints due to regional differences. Encouraging collaboration between member economies and leveraging regional cooperation in research,  development, and deployment of CCUS technology are keys to understand on concept, vision, challenge, barriers of each economy. Working together as SEA CCUS network is essential not only to tackle  climate change issues, but also to ensure energy security and accelerate CCS investment in the region. The results will be shared with this network to maximize benefit and value of new economic opportunities (e.g., CO2 cross border trading, CO2 hub, CO2 pricing in APEC) as well as to reduce risk (e.g., shared infrastructures of pipeline, port, and investment cost). This project engaged stakeholders from various organizations/economies covers a series of actions and workshops in aspects of CCS regulation, enabling policy, and storage resource to accelerate investment in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in APEC.

In addition, some economies especially, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, integrate CCUS into policy and planning to mitigate climate change as well as take more actions on essential enablers such as supportive policy, regulatory framework, economic mechanisms (i.e. emission trading system, cap and trade, CO2 tax)  and storage assessment to promote their CCS development. There are many CCUS projects proposed in Southeast Asia such as Kasawari CCS Facility (Malaysia) PTTEP Arthit CCS Project (Thailand), Sukowati CCUS project (Indonesia) that are the keys to built up capacity building and promote the energy efficiency and low carbon measures in the APEC. Therefore, this proposed project is key to support capacity building covering areas of technique, regulation and policy that is vital to drive force and accelerate the collaboration of policymakers, regulators, and operators of multilateral organizations in APEC to share perspective and steps to develop the critical issues (i.e., regulation, transboundary legislation, broader education across the region).