By OGJ editors
WASHINGTON, DC, July 28 -- The US and five countries from the Asia-Pacific region have formed what US President George W. Bush described as "a partnership on clean development, energy security, and climate change."
Bush disclosed the effort July 27, saying it would "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."
Because the partnership includes two key industrialized countries, the US and Australia, that haven't ratified the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, some observers interpreted formation of the group as an alternative to Kyoto.
"Despite some diplomatic language about the agreement not replacing the Kyoto Protocol, this new approach to managing greenhouse gas emissions by some of the world's largest energy-consuming nations clearly rejects Kyoto's inflexible, economically destructive approach," said Myron Ebell, the Competitive Enterprise Institute's director of global warming policy.
Other partners to the new agreement are China and India, which are exempt from the Kyoto Protocol, and Japan and South Korea, which have ratified it.
A White House fact sheet said the partnership would focus on "voluntary practical measures" to create investment opportunities, build local capacity, and "remove barriers to the introduction of clean, more efficient technologies."
