U.S. – Australia Relations
Asia-Pacific Partnership Ministerial Statement
Sydney — 12 January 2006
Remarks of Energy Secretary Bodman
Let me begin by thanking Minister Macfarlane and the Australian government for their extraordinary work in hosting this historic meeting.
I also want to thank my colleagues from China, India, Japan, and Korea for being here today. We appreciate the strong support of your governments for this endeavor.
Secretary Rice was very disappointed she could not join us here in Sydney as international events prevented her from making the trip.
But I can tell you on behalf of President Bush, Secretary Rice, and myself that we are committed to working with all of you to address our shared economic, energy, and environmental challenges. The Asia Pacific Partnership we are launching today is an exciting new opportunity to do so.
Along those lines, I’m pleased to announce today that President Bush will request $52 million in his upcoming FY 2007 budget to support the activities of the APP. This funding request will complement the $3 billion the U.S. spends each year on climate change technology solutions and the billions of dollars being invested by the U.S. private sector to increase efficiency and reduce emissions through voluntary programs like Climate Vision.
The initiation of the Asia-Pacific Partnership and the commitment we are making to its success come in the midst of momentous times.
Economies across the globe are growing… and increased prosperity is bringing greater health, well-being, security and happiness to millions of people around the world.
Of course, we all know that this growth is necessarily accompanied by increasing demands for energy. And as prosperity continues to spread to areas that have not yet been touched by its blessings, we know the world’s energy appetite will continue to grow.
So while the greater demand for energy is an indicator of positive trends, we are aware of the associated strains this places on the global environment… and in particular, the challenge of climate change.
Our Administration believes that all of these areas--economic growth, affordable energy supplies, and stewardship of the environment--are intimately connected. We cannot address the challenges of one without considering the others.
This is, in fact, one of the foundations of the Asia Pacific Partnership. We are all committed to combining the ingenuity of the private sector, the efficiency of markets, and the strength of the public sector to meet our energy needs, foster economic growth, and also protect the environment.
This commitment is not an act of faith. The evidence is overwhelming that economic development need not be at odds with responsible care for the environment… just the opposite, in fact. Improved environmental protection is one of the best indicators of growing prosperity… while environmental decline is one of the sure signs of a stagnating economy.
So one of the greatest benefits we can offer to developing nations is to help them invest in cleaner, more efficient energy technologies… because these technologies are the best way to help nations build their economies while limiting pollution and improving public health.
We know that given current levels of growth, a tripling of energy demand by 2100 is not unimaginable. Our challenge, then, is to make the energy we provide to meet this demand affordable, clean, and sustainable.
I believe that the United States has established a strong foundation that will allow us to make a substantial contribution to this effort… and to this historic new Partnership.
We have programs in place to cut the harmful air pollution from our power plants by nearly 70 percent, and from our diesel engines by more than 90 percent.
In 2002, President Bush set an ambitious national goal to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of the U.S. economy by 18 percent by 2012. This goal sets America on a path to slow the growth in emissions while sustaining the economic growth needed to finance investment in new technologies.
Recent data show that we are well on our way to making our goal.
As I mentioned earlier, through our Climate Change Technology Program, we are making a $3 billion annual investment in developing a broad array of cost-effective and realistic options—in energy efficiency, renewables, hydrogen, clean coal, carbon sequestration, nuclear power, biorefining, fusion, and others—to meet our climate objectives.
Internationally, the U.S. has initiated or joined a number of multilateral technology collaborations, including the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum, the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy, the Generation IV International Forum, the Methane to Markets Partnership, and the ITER fusion project.
Together, these and other technologies under development have the potential to revolutionize energy systems. The Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate can strengthen and expand our international efforts.
Equally significant is that the private sector also is playing an integral role in these initiatives, and it will play an even bigger role in the Asia-Pacific Partnership.
Later you will hear from Minister Macfarlane about yesterday’s Business Dialogue. What we learned there will be very helpful in changing and improving the communication and cooperation between governments and industry. This is vital, because the success of the APP will be measured largely by the success of the investments and collaborations of the private sector partners.
Recognizing this plain fact is what makes the Asia-Pacific Partnership unique.
We know that private sector participation is not only critical to accelerating the development and commercialization of new energy technologies--because of the private sector’s technical expertise--but that commercialization of advanced technologies is largely a private sector function.
That means that as we work to develop new and deploy existing clean energy technologies, there is a clear need to understand how the business, financial, and investment communities perceive the risks of adopting these technologies.
As we heard yesterday at the Business Dialogue, the private sector is looking to us in government to provide a predictable environment in which investment and collaboration on clean energy technologies can occur. That includes respect for intellectual property rights, protection for the sanctity of contracts, and the establishment of a level playing field where laws and regulations are clear and consistently enforced. If we are not dependable, we can hardly expect the private sector to function with confidence… or effectiveness.
That--my fellow Ministers--is our responsibility, our challenge. And, in turn, let me restate the challenge I offered earlier in our discussions to our private sector partners:
I challenged them to seize this opportunity and to be the real leaders in this effort. The initiative, the opportunity, is theirs to take… and to prove that entrepreneurship and innovation--not bureaucratic mandates--are the most effective ways to achieve positive results.
In conclusion, let me say how encouraged the United States is by the enthusiasm with which the Asia-Pacific Partnership has been greeted by all the participants.
Our government looks forward to working with all of you. Together, we can reach our goals of greater energy security, an improving the quality of life for our citizens and a cleaner environment.
Location: Sydney, Australia
Original document from www.energy.gov.
Last update: Monday, 19 November 2007 GMT+1000
