Japan, Brazil Agree to Promote Biofuels and Hybrid Vehicles

Hiroyuki Akiyama and Niki Mizuguchi (Nikkei Asia) Kishida and Lula hope to cooperate more on trade and decarbonization -- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva vowed on Friday to deepen cooperation on decarbonization while laying out a framework to popularize biofuels and hybrid vehicles.

Kishida met Lula in Brazil, which is vying with China and India for leadership of the Global South -- made up of emerging and developing countries that are becoming more vocal in the international community. Brazil is also this year's chair of the Group of 20 industrialized and emerging-market nations.

At their meeting, Kishida shared concerns about the Middle East crisis and Ukraine war and criticized North Korea's nuclear and missile development.

The leaders affirmed the importance of maintaining and strengthening an international order based on the rule of law. Japan aims to build up a wide range of cooperative projects to prevent Brazil from leaning too much towards China and Russia.

The sides agreed on a decarbonization cooperation package, which includes a framework on promoting sustainable fuels and transportation. Discussions will begin at the vice minister level.

Although electric vehicles are gaining in popularity around the world, building charging infrastructure is expensive and time consuming for developing countries, leading to a need for hybrid vehicles and biofuels. The hope is to spread these views at the Rio de Janeiro G20 summit in November.

The leaders also discussed United Nations reform. Both countries aim to become permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.

Since the beginning of the year, major Japanese automakers like Toyota Motor and Honda Motor have been making large-scale investments in Brazil. The leaders hope that further investment in the industrial sector will lead to a stronger relationship. READ MORE

Excerpt from NIkkei Asia: KYO -- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will announce the creation of a ministerial-level dialogue framework on decarbonization at a meeting of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris early May, he said in a recent written interview with Nikkei.

With Japan chairing the OECD this year, Kishida will address the climate change issue on May 2 in Paris, where the organization is headquartered. READ MORE