Partnerships for Clean Development and Climate: Business and Technology Cooperation Benefits

Development and poverty eradication are urgent and overriding goals internationally. The World Summit on Sustainable Development made clear the need for increased access to affordable, reliable and cleaner energy and the international community agreed in the Delhi Declaration on Climate Change and Sustainable Development on the importance of the development agenda in considering any climate change approach. To this end, six countries (Australia, China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea and the United States) have come together to form the Asia Pacific Partnership in accordance with their respective national circumstances, 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 on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The APP builds on the foundation of existing bilateral and multilateral initiatives complements.APP has established eight public-private sector Task Forces covering: (1) cleaner fossil energy; (2) renewable energy and distributed generation; (3) power generation and transmission; (4) steel; (5) aluminium; (6) cement; (7) coal mining; and (8) buildings and appliances. As a priority, each Task Force will formulate detailed action plans outlining both immediate and medium-term specific actions, including possible "flagship" projects and relevant indicators of progress by 31 August 2006. The partnership will help the partners build human and institutional capacity to strengthen cooperative efforts, and will seek opportunities to engage the private sector. The APP organized An Outreach Workshop: Business & Technology Cooperation Opportunities for Industry on August 26, 2006, New Delhi. This paper was prepared to provide background information for participants of the Conference. It highlights energy efficiency, renewable energy, and climate technologies, barriers, and partnerships that are being implemented in the US, India and other selected countries. The paper discusses the lessons to be learned from these partnerships, and ways by which the APP could foster cooperation between India and the other member countries. It highlights the types of technologies that Indian public sector and private industry could access from US national laboratories and also be able to leverage current and planned USAID/India activities. The paper builds on an earlier background paper that was prepared for the US-India Energy Dialogue Working Group on Energy Efficiency