Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate

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Map showing the members of the APPCDC.

APPCDC countries:

The Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, also known as AP6, is an international non-treaty agreement among Australia, India, Japan, the People's Republic of China, South Korea, and the United States announced July 28, 2005 at an Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum meeting and launched on January 12, 2006 at the Partnership's inaugural Ministerial meeting in Sydney. Foreign, Environment and Energy Ministers from partner countries agreed to co-operate on development and transfer of technology which enables reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Ministers agreed a Charter, Communique and Work Plan that "outline a ground-breaking new model of private-public taskforcess to address climate change, energy security and air pollution."

Member countries account for around 50% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, GDP and population. Unlike the Kyoto Protocol (currently unratified by the United States), which imposes mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions, this agreement allows member countries to set their goals for reducing emissions individually, with no mandatory enforcement mechanism. This has led to criticism that the Partnership is worthless, by other governments, climate scientists and environmental groups. Proponents, on the other hand, argue that unrestricted economic growth and emission reductions can only be brought about through active engagement by all major polluters, which includes India and China, within the Kyoto Protocol framework neither India nor China are yet required to reduce emissions.

Canada became the 7th member of the APP at the Second Ministerial Meeting of APP on Clean Development and Climate. Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper earlier expressed his intention to join the partnership in August 2007, despite some domestic opposition.^[1].

1 Aims
2 Areas for collaboration
3 Ministerial meetings
4 Support
5 Criticism
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Aims

US President George W. Bush called it a "new results-oriented partnership" that he said "will 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."^[2] John Howard, the former Australian Prime Minister, described the pact as "fair and effective"^{[citation needed]}

However, the Worldwide Fund for Nature stated that "a deal on climate change that doesn't limit pollution is the same as a peace plan that allows guns to be fired" whilst the British Governments' chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, in a BBC interview said he doubted the new deal could work without setting caps on emissions, but added it should be seen as a sign of progress on climate change. ^[3] Compared to the Kyoto Protocols, which so far require no emission reductions from India and China, the AP6 actively engages both countries through building market incentives to reduce greenhouse emissions along with providing knowledge and technology transfers. Proponents argue that this approach creates a greater likelihood that both India and China will, sooner rather than later, effectively cut their greenhouse emissions even though they are not required to by their Kyoto agreements.

[edit] Areas for collaboration

The intent is to:

develop, deploy and transfer existing and emerging clean technology;
meet increased energy needs and explore ways to reduce the greenhouse gas without hurting the economies
build human and institutional capacity to strengthen cooperative efforts; and
seek ways to engage the private sector.

The Partnership's inaugural Ministerial meeting established eight government and business taskforces ^[4] on

cleaner fossil energy
renewable energy and distributed generation
power generation and transmission
steel
aluminum
cement
coal mining
buildings and appliances

[edit] Ministerial meetings

Inaugural Ministerial Meeting in Sydney, January 2006.

The inaugural ministerial meeting was held at the Four Seasons Hotel and Government House in Sydney, Australia on January 11 and 12, 2006.

Asia-Pacific Partnership Ministers agreed and released a:

Charter that provides the framework and structure of the Partnership;
Communiqué that highlights key outcomes from this meeting; and
Work Plan that maps out an intensive agenda of work for the taskforces in the near-term.

Partnership Ministers met again in New Delhi, India on October 15, 2007.

[edit] Support

The Partnership has been publicly supported as an alternative to the Kyoto protocol by governments and business groups in some countries, particularly in countries where the Kyoto protocol has not been ratified. Many commentators have particularly welcomed the fact that the Partnership overcomes the impasse between developed and developing countries under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol. Canada, Mexico, Russia, and several ASEAN members have expressed interest in joining the partnership in the future.

[edit] Criticism

The Partnership has been criticized by environmentalists who have rebuked the proceedings as ineffectual without mandatory limits on greenhouse-gas emissions. A coalition of national environment groups and networks from all of the AP6 countries issued a challenge ^[5] to their governments to make the AP6 meaningful by agreeing to mandatory targets, creating financial mechanisms with incentives for the dissemination of clean energy technologies, and create an action plan to overcome the key barriers to technology transfer. U.S. Senator John McCain said the partnership "[amounted] to nothing more than a nice little public relations ploy." ^[6], while the Economist described the partnership as "patent fig-leaf for the refusal of America and Australia to ratify Kyoto" ^[7].

In the year since the agreement went into effect, none of the parties have lowered emissions of greenhouse gases.^{[citation needed]} Although it should be noted that under the Kyoto Protocol Australia is able to increase its emissions from 1990 levels to 108%.