The US unveiled an agreement with several Asian countries to develop
technology for reducing greenhouse gas emissions but denied the plan
was an attempt to sideline the United Nations-brokered Kyoto protocol.
Robert Zoellick, US deputy secretary of state, who formally
announced the pact at the sidelines of the Association of South-East
Asian Nations meeting in Vientiane, Laos said the agreement was not in
direct competition to the Kyoto protocol.
“We are not detracting
from Kyoto in any way at all. We are complementing it. Our goal is to
complement other treaties with practical solutions to problems,” he
said.
However, the US has been seeking a way to move “beyond
Kyoto” and says the pact - called the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean
Development and Climate - contrasts with “broad international
commitments that lack a programme of action.”
The partnership
will include China, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia and the US. It
will promote research and development for environmentally clean
technology but does not set any new targets for greenhouse gas
emissions, or involve specific commitments on the transfer of
technology from the US to developing countries.
