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Asia-Pacific nations plan to reduce global warming

VIENTIANE (LAOS): Asia-Pacific nations, including India, on Thursday came together to unveil a landmark partnership aimed at developing cleaner energy technologies to reduce global warming.

Described as a complement to the Kyoto Protocol, the partnership between India, the U.S., Japan, Australia, South Korea and China on `Clean Development and Climate' envisages working together to develop, deploy and transfer cleaner, more efficient technologies and to meet national pollution reduction, energy security and climate change concerns, consistent with the principles of the U.N. Framework Convention of Climate Change.

`Vision statement'

Minister of State for External Affairs Rao Inderjeet Singh, announcing the adoption of the `Vision Statement' for the partnership, noted that despite progress at many levels, 43 per cent of Indian households still did not have access to electricity. ``With its growing economy, India's energy needs are going to increase in the future. We need to develop in a balanced manner and have taken steps at the national-level to achieve energy efficiency,'' he told reporters at the Asia-Pacific security conference here. The Minister is here to represent External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh to attend the conference. The landmark partnership envisages collaboration among the six countries to promote and create an enabling environment for the development, diffusion, deployment and transfer of existing and emerging cost-effective, cleaner technologies and practices.

PTI reports from Washington:

The Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate between six nations, including India and the U.S., will work toward pollution reduction and addressing concerns over climate change in the region which accounts for almost half of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, the U.S. President George W. Bush has said. India, the United States, Australia, Japan, China and South Korea have joined hands ``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,'' Mr. Bush said in a statement.

— PTI

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