[Title] East Asia Low Carbon Growth Partnership Dialogue: Co-Chair's Summary

The East Asia Low Carbon Growth Partnership Dialogue was held in Tokyo, Japan on April 15 2012. Ministers from the 18 countries of the East Asia Summit (EAS) and, as observers, representatives of the ADB, ASEAN, ESCAP, OECD, UNDP, UNIDO, the World Bank, JICA and JBIC attended the Dialogue.

The Dialogue was co-chaired by H.E. Mr. Koichiro Gemba, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, and H.E. Mr. Rachmat Witoelar, President's Special Envoy for Climate Change and Executive Chair of the National Council on Climate Change of the Republic of Indonesia.

The Dialogue served as a great opportunity to kick off discussions regarding the promotion of low-carbon growth in the EAS region, the center of gravity of the world economy as well as highly vulnerable areas to climate change.

Participants exchanged views on each country's actions and strategies toward low-carbon growth, cooperation between developed and developing countries, the importance of low-carbon technologies, financial support and market mechanisms, and the significance of effective networks among the various stakeholders.

They shared the view that low-carbon growth was a key to realizing sustainable economic growth toward the future. They also recognized that bilateral and regional initiatives could play an important role for achieving low-carbon growth and enhancing the capacity of the developing and least developed countries to work together, taking into account the global regime under the UN. In this context, participants welcomed the efforts for the East Asia Low Carbon Growth Partnership, and recognized the importance of actively promoting low-carbon growth in this region, where impacts of climate change are likely to be felt most severe because of resource and infrastructure constraints.

Participants noted that countries in East Asia are engaged in developing and implementing their own low-carbon growth strategies in the context of sustainable development and in accordance with their specific national circumstances and priorities. They noted that financial, human and intellectual resources should be mobilized within the region, in order to support developing countries in making their own efforts geared to low-carbon growth. They emphasized that low-carbon growth strategy will be useful in meeting the increasing demand for energy and forestry resources and creating “smart cities” to deal with problems arising from urbanization in an environmentally efficient and friendly manner.

In addition, participants also recognized the important role of technology in achieving low-carbon growth. They underscored the need for developed countries to take the lead in technological innovation, and to facilitate development of technologies in developing countries to support activities aimed at low-carbon growth. In this regard, they recognized the role of governments and other stakeholders including the private sector in encouraging investments in development of technologies. They shared the view that the use of market and non-market mechanisms was one of the effective ways of making advanced technologies and products more widely available, and noted the various approaches proposed by some participants. They agreed to continue exchanging information with a view to enhance mutual understanding on this issue.

Participants reaffirmed that it was important for the various stakeholders such as national and local governments, international organizations, universities, research institutions, private sectors and NGOs to work together towards realizing low-carbon growth and a climate resilient society. To this end, they agreed to work towards establishing “East Asia Knowledge Platform for Low-carbon Growth” as an open, multi-layered, flexible network in which those stakeholders shared their knowledge, information and experience related to low-carbon growth and adaptation, promoted strategic research cooperation and provided inputs into the policy-making process.

Finally, participants agreed that the Co-Chairs would report on their own responsibility the summary of the discussions in this Dialogue to the EAS related ministerial meetings as well as the East Asia Summit this year. They also welcomed the proposal of Japan and Cambodia to hold the second Dialogue sometime next year.