The Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC), launched by Japan in 2022, represents a new platform for regional cooperation in the fields of decarbonization and green energy. The article examines the key parameters of AZEC’s formation, its institutional characteristics, and the preliminary results of its implementation in 2023-2024. At this stage, AZEC functions as a flexible coordination framework without a strict international legal basis, which allows adaptation to diverse national contexts but simultaneously creates risks of limited long-term sustainability. Particular attention is given to the analysis of projects implemented in Southeast Asian countries and Australia, including hydrogen and ammonia technologies, biomass power generation, microgrids, and energy management systems. Case studies from Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and other participants highlight the multi-level nature of cooperation, encompassing energy, industry, and the agricultural sector. Despite its modest quantitative impact (approximately 0.0785% of the region’s total installed capacity by the end of 2024), the initiative’s qualitative significance lies in piloting innovative technologies, shaping the institutional foundations of climate policy, and strengthening a regional “ecosystem” structured around Japanese technological solutions. At this stage, AZEC functions primarily as a mechanism for demonstrating and testing models of low-carbon development, as well as a channel for the transfer of norms, knowledge, and governance practices. Its contribution to the energy transition in East Asia is therefore less about immediate capacity expansion and more about creating the conditions for future scaling of Japan’s energy sector in the region and deepening of green cooperation.
