Annual Ministerial meetings

Outline: APEC Ministers met in Lima, Peru, on Nov 14, 2024, chaired by Peruvian Ministers. They welcomed participation from various organizations and representatives. They reaffirmed commitment to the APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040 and advanced APEC’s cooperation agenda through three thematic priorities. They welcomed APEC’s role in advancing work for positive environmental outcomes and acknowledged ongoing work on environmental goods. They noted consensus outcomes of the APEC Finance Ministers’ Meeting and the Energy Ministerial Meeting, reaffirming the importance of energy security, resilience, and access in the Asia-Pacific region. They committed to accelerating clean, just, affordable, inclusive, and sustainable energy transitions to promote economic growth and triple renewable energy capacity globally.

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1. We, the APEC Ministers, met in Lima, Peru, on November 14, 2024, chaired by Minister of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Elmer Schialer and Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism Ms. Desilú León. We welcomed the participation of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC), as well as representatives of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation Development (OECD), the World Bank (WB), and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

2. In reaffirming our commitment to the APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040 of an open, dynamic, resilient and peaceful Asia-Pacific community by 2040 for the prosperity of all our people and future generations, including by implementing the Aotearoa Plan of Action (APA), and under the APEC 2024 theme “Empower. Include. Grow.,” we have advanced APEC’s cooperation agenda through three thematic priorities: Trade and investment for inclusive and interconnected growth; innovation and digitalization to promote transition to the formal and global economy; and sustainable growth for resilient development. These efforts build on previous APEC achievements and seek to respond to the needs and aspirations of our people, while strengthening APEC as the premier forum for economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.

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20. We welcome APEC’s continued role in advancing work that leads to positive environmental outcomes, including through the facilitation of trade in environmental goods and services. We also acknowledge ongoing work to implement the APEC Work Plan on Environmental Goods and to develop a Framework of Discussions for Producing an APEC Reference List of Environmental Goods in support of developing a new, voluntary, non-binding APEC Reference List of Environmental Goods in line with the recommendations. We welcome the completion of the update of the 2012 APEC List of Environmental Goods to HS2022 nomenclature for reference purposes.

26. We note with appreciation the consensus outcomes of the 31st APEC Finance Ministers’ Meeting, under the theme “Sustainable + Digital + Resilient = APEC. We also acknowledge the launch of the Finance Ministers Process (FMP) Sustainable Finance Initiative through 2027 unless it is renewed in line with its Terms of Reference, as a flexible, voluntary, and non-binding initiative for collaboration between the public sector, private sector and international organizations for APEC economies to promote the development of voluntary information sharing tools and capacity building resources on sustainable finance issues. With the completion of the Cebu Action Plan in 2025, we note with appreciation the “Guidance Document for Developing a New Finance Ministers’ Process Roadmap”. We also note with appreciation the “Second Strategy for Modernization of the Finance Ministers’ Process”, which can help to ensure that the FMP continues to be a platform that is agile, efficient and beneficial for all APEC economies. We recall our commitment to rationalize and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption, while recognizing the importance of providing those in need with essential energy services. To reach this goal, we will continue our efforts in an accelerated manner.

27. We note with appreciation the consensus outcomes of the 14th Energy Ministerial Meeting. We reaffirm the importance of ensuring energy security, resilience and access in the Asia-Pacific region. We reiterate the need to further integrate action on addressing environmental challenges, including climate change, extreme weather and natural disasters, with a view to ending energy poverty and advancing the global energy transition. In this regard, we are committed to accelerating clean, just, affordable, inclusive and sustainable energy transitions through various pathways, consistent with global net-zero greenhouse gas emissions/carbon neutrality by or around mid-century, taking into account the latest scientific developments and different domestic circumstances among economies, with a view to promote strong, balanced, secure, sustainable and inclusive economic growth. We recall our commitment to pursue and encourage efforts to triple renewable energy capacity globally through existing targets and policies as well as demonstrate similar ambition with respect to other zero and low emissions technologies including abatement and removal technologies in line with domestic circumstances by 2030. In this regard, we commit to work in defining a new collective aspirational goal for the power sector to increase the share of electricity generated by carbon free and carbon neutral sources in order to further advance APEC’s contribution towards the energy transitions, while promoting energy efficiency as the first fuel. We also welcome the endorsement by the Energy Ministers of the “APEC Policy Guidance to develop and implement clean and low-carbon hydrogen policy frameworks in the Asia-Pacific”, to help economies’ individual and collective efforts in this matter. We also welcome the Just Energy Transition Initiative as a way to promote efforts to accelerate energy transitions within APEC economies, as per domestic circumstances, consistent with the Non-Binding Just Energy Transition Principles for APEC Cooperation.

29. We commend the APEC High-Level Dialogue on Mining recognizing the role of mining as an important contributor to clean, sustainable, just, affordable and inclusive energy transitions and sustainable economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region.

The news comes from: https://www.apec.org/meeting-papers/annual-ministerial-meetings/2024/2024-apec-ministerial-meeting