Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in Manila Photo: RNZ / Craig McCulloch
The government has committed $41 million to clean energy transition at the Asian Development Bank's Energy Transition Mechanism.
The initiative will use public and private finance to accelerate the phasing out of fossil fuel plants.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said it demonstrated New Zealand's commitment to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.
"The ETM is a transformative initiative that uses public and private finance to accelerate the retirement and repurposing of fossil fuel plants and replace them with cleaner, renewable sources of energy," Luxon said in a statement.
"Urgent action to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions is needed to get on track for 1.5°C and minimise the worst impacts of climate change. Today's announcement responds to this call for action, and represents a significant investment in supporting our partners in South East Asia."
He will announce the details with Climate Change Minister Simon Watts in Manila this evening.
Watts said the investment would have an initial focus on Indonesia, the Philippines and Viet Nam.
Luxon was highly critical of the previous government's investments in emissions reductions at domestic companies.
He said the $140 million payment for the NZ Steel deal - which Labour touted as New Zealand's biggest ever emissions reduction project - was a "subsidy paid for by Kiwi taxpayers ... to a large foreign, multinational, profitable company", and criticised spending on phasing out coal boilers as "corporate welfare".
