Climate and energy experts from Korea, China, and Japan came together in Seoul.

The '2025 East Asia Energy Transition International Roundtable', jointly hosted on the 1st at the Conrad Hotel in Yeouido, Seoul, by NEXT group, Agora Energiewende(headquarters and its China office), and the Renewable Energy Institute(REI) of Japan, was attended by about 90 participants and featured heated discussions among experts. The roundtable was first held last year in Shanghai, China, with the aim of creating a forum for discussions on East Asia’s clean energy transition and industrial decarbonization, and this year marked its second edition.

In his welcome speech, Seungwan Kim, CEO of NEXT group, said, “Asia’s three countries are a crucial region that will determine the success or failure of global decarbonization. Rather than following the trajectory of the West, let us draw concrete visions to lead the world.”

In the special lecture, lawmaker Junghyun Kim(former Chancellor of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy) stated, “The new normal of the international community is fragmentation, nationalism, and geopolitics. Although confusing, such multipolarity can become an opportunity for the democratization of the international order. That is why gatherings of solidarity among Korea, China, and Japan, like today, are important.”

In the plenary discussion, chaired by Rachel Eun Ko, Deputy CEO of NEXT group, Kyungsik Kim, CEO of ESG Network, Isadora Wang, Senior Advisor of Agora China, Yuko Nishida, Manager at REI, Eric Goto, Researcher at REI, and Sugang Kim, Researcher at NEXT group, discussed 'innovative transition pathways for the steel and chemical industries'. Experts from the three countries agreed that since all three nations share common characteristics of being major carbon emitters with export-oriented industrial structures, governments must present clear directions for decarbonization in order to strengthen industrial competitiveness.

This was followed by a thematic discussion on 'expanding the renewable energy market' and 'transitioning the power sector'. Participants shared lessons learned from trial and error in their respective countries, explored cooperation measures for offshore wind expansion in Asia, discussed prospects for a Northeast Asia supergrid among Korea, China, and Japan, and examined grid innovation in light of the growth of distributed power generation.