Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate

"This new results-oriented partnership will allow our nations to develop and accelerate deployment of cleaner, more efficient energy technologies to meet national pollution reduction, energy security, and climate change concerns in ways that reduce poverty and promote economic development." - President George W. Bush

The United States believes that by working with other nations to advance the related objectives of improving economic and energy security, alleviating poverty, improving human health, reducing harmful air pollution, and reducing the growth of greenhouse gas emissions levels, great progress can be made. To this end, the United States has joined with five Asian nations to launch the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate.

The Partnership involves countries that account for about half of the world’s population and more than half of the world’s economy and energy use. It will build on existing bilateral partnerships and multilateral climate change-related energy technology initiatives, including the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum, the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy, and the Methane to Markets Partnership.

First Ministerial Meeting in Sydney
The First Ministerial meeting of the Asia-Pacific Partnership took place in Sydney, Australia, January 11-12, 2006. At that meeting, the ministers agreed to a Partnership Communiqué, Charter, and Work Plan that established eight public-private sector Task Forces.

Partnership Functions
The Partnership focuses on voluntary practical measures taken by these six countries in the Asia-Pacific region to create new investment opportunities, build local capacity, and remove barriers to the introduction of clean, more efficient technologies. It will bring together key experts from the public, private and research sectors. The Partner countries also will work with multilateral development banks and other sources of financing for initiatives and programs identified by the Task Forces.

The Partnership will help each country meet nationally designed strategies for improving economic and energy security, alleviating poverty, improving human health, reducing harmful air pollution, and reducing the growth of greenhouse gas emissions levels.

The Partnership views climate change as a serious challenge that warrants a long-term commitment to substantive action. The Partnership will be consistent with and contribute to efforts under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and will complement, but not replace, the Kyoto Protocol.

U.S. Funding
The United States Government has proposed $52 million in funding to support the work of the Partnership as part of the President’s Fiscal Year 2007 Budget.

Next Steps
Partner countries will meet in April 2006 to begin drafting a detailed action plan for each Task Force. It is anticipated that these plans will contain near and mid-term steps to meet Partnership goals. Partner countries aim to complete the development of these action plans by mid-2006.

Asia-Pacific Partnership Task Forces

1. Cleaner Fossil Energy
2. Renewable Energy and Distributed Generation
3. Power Generation and Transmission
4. Steel
5. Aluminum
6. Cement
7. Coal Mining
8. Buildings and Appliances