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The Gyeongju Declaration? APEC’s Big Green Promise in a Divided Asia-Pacific


World Economic Leaders at the APEC Summits’ Conclusion  (01/11/2025
World Economic Leaders at the APEC Summits’ Conclusion  (01/11/2025). Source: YONHAP

Introduction

How does an organisation created for unity unite against all odds during times of geopolitical tensions? During an ever-changing backdrop, the 2025 APEC Summit in Gyeongju became a test for regional cooperation. The forum, held from October 31st to November 1st, brought together leaders from twenty-one member countries, meeting under the theme “Building a Sustainable Tomorrow: Connect, Innovate, Prosper” (Son, 2025).

Ever since its founding in 1989, APEC has been recognised as a platform for advancing free and open trade. However, in connection to its theme of building a sustainable future, its relevance today is measured by its capacity to drive collective action on sustainability, particularly in areas such as digital transformation and green growth (APEC, 2025; Son, 2025).

This year, member economies arrived with varying priorities. In addition to the ongoing rivalry between the United States and China, concerns emerged. Ranging from issues like AI innovation and food security to sustainability-related matters such as energy and climate change, these dynamics pose an important question: To what extent can APEC Korea 2025 translate its theme of a sustainable tomorrow into tangible, coordinated regional policies amid deepening geopolitical divides? 

Sustainability and Climate Fault Lines

Due to the diversity of nations within APEC, disagreements in certain areas are somewhat inevitable. However, APEC’s internal divisions are most visible in sustainability and climate change. Although “Building a Sustainable Tomorrow” is the main message for the 2025 conference, climate “fault lines” within the organisation are apparent.

To begin, the Asia-Pacific region faces financing gaps for clean energy and climate resilience. The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP, 2025) estimates that Asia-Pacific countries, excluding China, require $800 billion annually in energy investments. Meanwhile, current clean energy investments stand at a mere $300 billion per year (UNDP, 2025). The $500-billion disparity reflects the fact that advanced economies can mobilize a larger scale of financing for climate change initiatives, while developing members struggle to keep up.

These fault lines remain evident in the differing net-zero targets among member economies: although most APEC countries pledged net-zero by the mid-century (2050), some have later deadlines in 2060, and others, such as Mexico and the Philippines, have no targets at all (Climate Action Tracker, 2025). This shows that while developed economies such as Japan, Australia, Canada, and South Korea have ambitious commitments to net-zero pathways, others still prioritise economic development and reliable energy access. 

Nevertheless, these gaps do not mean that all developing economies are struggling. Thanks to rising investment flows and improved policy frameworks, some have recently begun accelerating their climate strategies. Vietnam is a key example of a successful developing economy, as it balances growth and a determination to pursue an energy transition. As of 2025, Vietnam still heavily relies on fossil fuels, but with upcoming foreign investments, it is diversifying its main energy sources with solar and wind (OECD, 2025). With three main policy pillars: the Power Development Plan VIII (PDP8), the Direct Power Purchase Agreement (DPPA) mechanism, and the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), Vietnam can expect approximately USD 15.5 billion in support from partner countries to help phase out coal and expand clean energy (Evneic, 2025).

However, these growths do not equal sufficient growth for the Asia-Pacific in general. BloombergNEF (2025) reports that emerging markets need an average annual investment of USD 4.3 trillion until 2050 to meet global climate goals. Low to middle-income countries invested upwards of USD 2.2 trillion in their energy systems, a 35% increase from 2020. However, most of this increase comes from China, which contributed USD 1.1 trillion (UNCTAD, 2025), and, in doing so, reveals the region’s primary issue: emerging markets are still behind in energy investment, deepening the climate fault lines that divide the region’s transition pathways.

Fragmentation Amid Gyeongju’s Green Promise

Furthermore, these fault lines do not just slow down the region’s sustainability goals, but also its other priorities. The official presiding over the 2025 APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting, Ambassador Yoon Seong-mee, noted that, “The Asia-Pacific is navigating complex challenges — supply chain disruptions, the impact of artificial intelligence on jobs and industries, and fundamental changes in the demographic landscape.” This affirms the concern that, due to challenges worldwide, coordination at the conference (APEC, 2025) is difficult to achieve. This played out clearly, with some pushing on digital trade, others on energy security, and many preoccupied with the ongoing strategic rivalry between the United States and China (APEC, 2025; Chohan, 2025).

With digital trade, an incident in April 2025 depicts the new U.S. tariffs that sharply reduced business with China. Container shipments fell by up to 40%, and imports to the U.S. dropped by almost a third. This resulted in ASEAN countries like Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia having to seek new suppliers to keep their industries running quickly (Descartes Global Trade Intelligence, 2025). 

Meanwhile, in technology, APEC faced polarising debates surrounding the increasing emergence of AI. The rapid unfurling of artificial intelligence raised questions regarding the future of automation, creative ownership, and cultural protection. According to a study of the region's economies, the US places a premium on innovation with few regulations, China has tight state control, while other members of the Asia-Pacific region use different degrees of self-regulation (APEC, 2025).

These examples show that APEC's goals for a connected, innovative, and prosperous region exist against a backdrop of major structural and geopolitical challenges. Despite the fragmentations, leaders persisted in economic integration, deeper cooperation in trade and investment, and measures to fulfill their green promise for a “sustainable tomorrow.”

The Output for a “Sustainable Tomorrow”

Now, the biggest question remains: did the APEC organisation band together in the face of difficulty to realize its vision of a "sustainable future" and develop a unified regional policy?

Whilst a definitive answer is difficult to determine, APEC Korea did manage to produce measurable outputs that demonstrated the organisation’s desire to reach an agreement on sustainability commitments. These include:

  • SCFAP III, which aspires to make trades paperless and digitalized, promotes green supply chains, and advocates coordinated policy and investments to make sure every member economy is included (APEC, 2024);

  • Shifting of the sustainability agenda from only environmental protection to more complex issues such as digital inclusion and AI protection laws through APEC’s AI Initiative (2026-2030) (Reuters, 2025; APEC, 2025);

  • And the Gyeongju Declaration itself, which seeks to promote resilient energy systems, diversification of clean and reliable energy sources, strengthen electricity infrastructures, recognize the transitional role of natural gas/LNG, and leverage AI for sustainable energy innovation (APEC, 2025).


APEC Leaders’ Gyeongju Declaration (01/11/2025)
APEC Leaders’ Gyeongju Declaration (01/11/2025). Source: APEC

APEC 2025’s agenda demonstrated a moderate capacity to translate its sustainability agendas into a working regional policy, as long as member economies can follow through with their commitments. This is echoed by recent energy transition research by Liu et al. (2023), in which  progress in sustainable economic growth depends on the strengthening of institutional capacity and regional commitments — a gap that still challenges APEC economies. 

Conclusion

At the end of APEC Korea 2025, questions remained as to whether Gyeongju marked real renewal or simply symbolic repetition. The Gyeongju summit of "Building a Sustainable Tomorrow" showed that people from different economic, technological, and environmental backgrounds could and should work together. However, the road to that future remains unstable. As developed economies move forward with digital innovation and promises to reach net-zero emissions, many developing countries still face immediate needs for growth and energy security.

Without concrete mechanisms for accountability, APEC’s sustainability goals risk staying rhetorical. What remains to be done is to follow through on these commitments at both regional and domestic levels, particularly to narrow the fault lines that continue to fragment the Asia-Pacific. The success of Gyeongju depends on turning talk into reality through connection, innovation, and prosperity, foregrounding cooperation to ensure shared prosperity for the region’s future.



This article represents the views of contributors to STEAR's online digital publication, and not those of STEAR, which takes no institutional positions.



References

APEC,  (2025). APEC Leaders’ Gyeongju Declaration.

APEC. (2025, November 1). History. APEC. https://www.apec.org/About-Us/About-APEC/History

APEC. (2025). Korea Advances Regional Trade, AI, and Sustainability Agenda. https://www.apec.org/press/news-releases/2025/apec-2025--korea-advances-regional-trade--ai--and-sustainability-agenda 

APEC. (2024). Supply Chain Connectivity Framework Action Plan 2022–2026 (SCFAP III): Mid-term Review. https://www.apec.org/publications/2024/11/apec-supply-chain-connectivity-framework-action-plan-2022-2026-(scfap-iii)--mid-term-review 

Atanassova-Cornelis, E., Sato, Y., & Sauer, T. (2025). Security order and strategic alignment in Europe and the Asia-Pacific. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003503378 

BloombergNEF. (2025, May 21). Emerging markets make headway on clean energy policy and investment, but trillions more needed for net zero, BloombergNEF reveals. BloombergNEF. https://about.bnef.com/insights/clean-energy/emerging-markets-make-headway-on-clean-energy-policy-and-investment-but-trillions-more-needed-for-net-zero-bloombergnef-reveals 

Chohan, A. (2025, August 16). Access Alert: 10 Takeaways from the 2025 APEC Trade Ministers’ Meeting. Access Partnership. https://accesspartnership.com/opinion/access-alert-10-takeaways-2025-apec-trade-ministers-meeting 

Climate Action Tracker. (2025). Net zero targets. https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/south-korea/net-zero-targets/ 

Descartes Global Trade Intelligence. (2025). May 2025 U.S. container imports decline as frontloading fades and tariff impacts set in. https://www.descartes.com/resources/knowledge-center/global-shipping-report-june-2025-us-Imports-down-in-may-led-by-china 

Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. (2025). New UN report assesses the readiness of Asia-Pacific economies amid climate change. https://www.unescap.org/news/new-un-report-assesses-readiness-asia-pacific-economies-amid-climate-change 

Liu, B., Olayinka, O. A., Sofuoğlu, E., Abbas, S., & Sinha, A. (2023). Should Asia Pacific economic cooperation countries put all their eggs in one energy basket? Examining the linkage between energy diversification and sustainable development. Energy Policy, 179, 113619. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2023.113619 

OECD (2025), OECD Economic Surveys: Viet Nam 2025, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/fb37254b-en 

Prime Minister of Canada. (2025, November 3). 2025 APEC Leaders’ Gyeongju Declaration. https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/statements/2025/11/01/2025-apec-leaders-gyeongju 

Reuters. (2025, November). South Korea’s Lee hopes to tackle AI and demographic issues at APEC summit. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/south-koreas-lee-hopes-tackle-ai-demographic-issues-apec-summit-2025-11-01/

Son, J. (2025, October 30). APEC 2005 and 2025: How South Korea, world changed - The Korea Herald. The Korea Herald. https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10604222 

UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD).  (2023, July 5). World Investment Report 2023 | Investing in sustainable energy for all. https://unctad.org/publication/world-investment-report-2023 

UN Development Programme. (2025, June 5). Closing the gap: Mobilizing energy financing across the Asia-Pacific. UNDP Asia and the Pacific. https://www.undp.org/asia-pacific/stories/closing-gap 

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