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Remarks By James L. Connaughton Chairman Of The Council On Environmental Quality At The Second Ministerial Meeting Of The Asia-Pacific Partnership On Clean Development And Climate, New Delhi, October 15, 2007

As prepared for delivery

October 15, 2007

Thanks and good morning to all assembled from the government and private sectors.  It is a great pleasure to extend my greetings from President Bush and Secretary Rice.  We congratulate you on this huge milestone of achievement.  The APP started as a small discussion a few years ago and has turned into a major enterprise that supports sustainable growth, economic opportunity and our climate change goals.  Thank you to our hosts from India, a country that has illustrated remarkable economic growth as well as a commitment to sustainable development.  We hope your commitment to these goals will sustain you into the future and advance the welfare of your people.

            We extend our congratulations to Nobel peace prize winner, Dr. Pachauri.  His leadership in the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change is worthy of the great honor bestowed upon him.  It is the scientists of all our countries that have come together under his leadership.  Development is sine quo non of adaptation.  The future of this work is adaptation and evaluation of the effectiveness of policies.

            I am delighted that Canada has joined the fold, and more delighted that they bring to the Partnership the philosophy of public-private stewardship that underpins what we are trying to achieve.

            What I would like to do is talk about two things:  First of all, putting the U.S. contribution to the APP into perspective, and, second, referencing what the Flagship Projects mean to us.

            As we address our shared commitments under UNFCCC and Kyoto based on the rule of law, investing in our people, and supporting stable economic instruments, the APP’s goal is to focus on implementation.  We will move beyond rhetorical commitments and translate these ideals into action. At the foundation of APP is a commitment to economic growth and the strategies we need to take toward this shared investment in clean development.

            I am pleased to announce that we have been able in just the past fiscal year to contribute US$45 million in funds that support the projects and activities of the Partnership.  This support will immediately leverage US$120 million in other investments.  As we move forward with our private sector and government Partners, this investment will increasingly amplify.

            The APP’s sector-based focus is bottom-up and practical in its application.  Technologies need to be made available globally in order to further the Partnership’s objectives. This work is about real economic savings and pollution reductions in support of economic growth, health and climate benefits.

            Let me describe some of our recent accomplishments to date.

            Our heavy industries are cooperating to bring the gains of our industries into our economies.  This work illustrates that APP is about reducing air pollution and economic growth as well as long term climate benefits.

            The Coal Mining Task Force has set up a health and safety steering committee.  There can be no better commitment to sustainable development than by focusing on worker safety.  Coal mining safety is as much an issue in United States as it is to our Partners, India and China, and other countries throughout the world.  Again this illustrates that by sharing experience we are working toward our common objectives.

            In the power generation and transmission sector, those of us relying on coal have the potential to achieve an increased level of efficiency.  Low-cost best-practice improvements, if implemented, could, for example, reduce CO2 emissions in India alone by 10 million tons per year.  This is why the U.S. has worked to support and host hundreds of power engineers as they work together to find the tools and techniques to produce more power with less fuel.  This is a very practical activity.

            As we look forward to the advanced technologies in power generation, the opportunities in India and China are as great as in the US, Canada and Australia.   We will be working together to move forward on a parallel path to bring these technologies to fruition.  We continue to look at the opportunities of combined heat and power and distributed generation.  China is a great example of a country taking advantage of this technology.

            The APP is also about trade.  Trade in the context of APP is more than a 2-way street -- it’s a 7 way street.  We work to enhance and amplify the benefits of trade.  Our Department of Commerce recently held an APP trade mission which will lead to millions of dollars of investment in these countries.  A 2006 reverse trade mission of Indian renewable energy companies to the US is expected to result in US$12 million in clean technology trade and investment in US.

            The US is pursuing various policy approaches to significantly increase market penetration of renewable technologies.  These efforts could lead to installation of up to 50 GW of renewable energy between now and 2020.  As part of the President's 20 in 10 Plan, we have introduced legislation requiring the use of 35 billion gallons of alternative fuels in 2017.  We expect to see our partners work together to support diffusion of these technologies.

            Our Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency are working on low-cost and no-cost efficiency improvements in buildings that can increase efficiency by 10-15%, which leads directly to major cost savings and profit.

            Looking ahead we see that these Flagship Projects are just the beginning.  The goal is for hundreds and thousands of new projects to follow.  We have made lightening speed in this partnership with 110 projects moving forward in less than 1.5 years.

            One future project that exemplifies these principles is a project that will link utility demand side management efforts between the states of California and Maharashtra.  Recent studies have concluded that demand and supply side energy efficiency improvements could completely alleviate the state’s electricity shortage, increase industrial output and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

            Finance is a big piece to sustaining and replicating these projects.  The IEA has estimated that between 2005 and 2030, US$20 trillion will be spent in energy-supply infrastructure, much of which will be invested in the APP countries.  This is a huge base of resources, most of which will come from the private sector.  We need to harness this projected investment to advance clean and sustainable energy.

            The APP is one of the most important tools to achieve that vision.

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