Asia-Pacific Partnership On Clean Development and Climate

SECRETARY RICE: Good morning. Thank you all for joining us this morning. Senator Pryor, thank you so much for being here. It's a pleasure to have everyone here with us today. Senator Hagel wanted to join us but was unable to do so, but he sent his support and respect for this initiative.

I also would like to thank Deputy Secretary of Energy Clay Sell, Deputy Secretary of Commerce David Sampson and the Chairman of the CEQ Jim Connaughton for being here. I want to thank the ambassadors from our partner countries who are here: Ambassador Richardson of Australia. Ambassador, there he is. Australia did a fine job of hosting the inaugural launch of this initiative in January. Thank you very much, Ambassador. Ambassador Zhou of China, Ambassador Kato of Japan, Ambassador Lee of Korea and DCM Singh of India. Thank you very much for joining us.

I would also like the welcome the seven American CEOs from the energy sector who are joining us today, as well as the distinguished partner countries.

We are here today to advance the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate. This is a multilateral public-private partnership to enhance energy security, to promote economic growth and to reduce greenhouse gasses. As the President emphasized in his State of the Union Address, this Administration is committed to developing cleaner and more secure sources of energy. This is essential for powering our nation's economy and for preserving our environment.

The Asia-Pacific Partnership is an important part of this commitment. The United States has joined with Australia, China, India, Japan and the Republic of Korea to take real action to achieve our shared development and climate objectives. Through our partnership we seek to move beyond divisive politics and to advance common purposes. Everyone has something to contribute. Everyone stands to gain. And together we represent a powerful force for positive change.

Our CEO partners are global leaders in the energy sectors, which account of a majority of the world's industrial production and power generation. Your contributions are crucial to the success of our partnership. By deploying your best technologies and practices, we will lower the cost of production, we will reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and we will develop and bring to the marketplace the next generation of technologies to enhance our energy security and our national security.

Our five partners in government are also critical to this initiative, as they represent some of our world's most vibrant economies and some of our world's most influential nations.

Our partnership will require a sustained commitment from all of us and we in the United States plan to meet our responsibilities. In the fiscal year 2007 Budget that he has just released, President Bush is proposing $52 million to support the work of the Asia-Pacific Partnership with plans to continue strong support for the partnership in years to come. I'm delighted that we here at the State Department will coordinate this effort and I want to thank Under Secretary Dobriansky for her efforts in this regard. We look forward to working with our partners in Congress, particularly Senators Pryor and Hagel to realize our clean development goals.

These two men, these senators, are driving efforts on Capitol Hill to promote a healthier environment through cleaner technologies. The Asia-Pacific Partnership is an ideal framework for advancing the 2005 Energy Policy Act and for strengthening the President's approach of addressing climate objectives in the broader context of sustainable development and energy security.

Working together we have the capacity and the real opportunity to move the international community toward better, cleaner development, toward continued economic growth and job creation and toward a healthier and more secure future for all of our citizens. Thank you.

And now I would like to invite Senator Pryor to the podium to say a few words.

SENATOR MARK PRYOR: Thank you. Thank you, Madame Secretary. You all probably heard that last night we had an incident at the Russell Senate Office Building. There were no casualties on that except for Senator Hagel because instead of him preparing for this morning – and he has an intelligence hearing today which is very, very important -- he was stuck for three hours in the parking garage and that just made this morning impossible for him. But he wanted me to pass on his regrets for not being here. He and I worked on the so-called Hagel-Pryor Amendment and we are very, very pleased to say that it had very broad bipartisan support. We had 66 Senators who voted for it. It was one of the biggest vote getters in all of the energy bill last year.

Our idea is to have a domestic and international partnership, to have public-private partnerships to work with the Congress and the Administration to try to address these climate change issues in a very constructive way. And I want to thank Secretary Rice for her leadership and for forging and promoting and doing everything in her power to make this day happen with the Asia-Pacific Partnership. And also certainly President Bush, I want to thank him for his leadership.

And one thing I want to try to do in Congress, along with Senator Hagel and many others, is we want to try to work with the Administration and work with leadership in both houses to find adequate funds on the domestic front so that we can really help position the United States to be a major player for the future in energy technology.

And last thing I wanted to say is that green technology is a real winner for this country and for all the countries that are represented here. In fact, in Little Rock, Arkansas, we have a little company called ThermoEnergy, and they have developed a technology that eliminates most air emission from fossil fuel power plants. And there are lots of companies like this around the country and around the world who have patented technology, who have great technology that can be brought out in the marketplace and the Hagel-Pryor Amendment and this Asia-Pacific Partnership really are designed to try to help those companies help all of us have a cleaner, better, safer environment.

Thank you, Secretary Rice, for having us here today.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you, Senator.

UNDER SECRETARY DOBRIANSKY: Thank you Senator Pryor. Thank you Secretary Rice. This concludes our press conference. Thank you.
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