APEC Leaders Energy Efficiency Goals

APEC Leaders Energy Efficiency Goals



2007 September -   Asia-Pacific leaders agreed 
on Saturday to adopt a "long-term aspirational goal" to reduce greenhouse 
gas emissions in the region in support of the United Nations' global 
efforts, announced Australian Prime Minister John Howard. 
Under the Sydney Declaration on Climate Change, Energy Security and Clean 
Development, the goals are to reduce energy intensity by at least 25 
percent by 2030 from the 2005 level, and to increase forest cover in the 
region by at least 20 million hectares of all types of forests by 2020. 
The non-binding numerical targets indicate that APEC leaders wish to throw 
their political muscle behind an international push to avert the worst 
consequences of a warming planet. 
This is the first year that leaders from the 21 APEC member economies have 
included climate change discussions in their annual summit. 
The leaders of the world's two largest greenhouse gas emitters - U.S. 
President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao - said Thursday 
that they support international cooperation to deal with global warming.

"We talked about climate change and our desire to work together on climate 
change," Bush said at a news conference after their meeting. 
Hu said, "We believe that the issue of climate change bears on the welfare 
of the whole humanity and sustainable development of the whole world. And 
this issue should be appropriately tackled through stronger international 
cooperation." 
Bush continued to promote his policy of using technology to limit 
greenhouse gas emissions and made no mention of an international agreement 
reached in Vienna last week to limit emissions by 25 to 40 percent in the 
period after the current Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. 
In a briefing Thursday, White House spokesperson Dana Perino said, 
"President Bush indicated the U.S. intended to support a strong leaders' 
declaration on climate change and encouraged President Hu to do likewise. 
President Bush also invited President Hu to consider eliminating tariffs 
on environmental and clean energy technologies." 
Perino said President Hu took that suggestion under advisement without 
directly responding to it. 
Speaking to the APEC Business Leaders Summit Thursday, Bush was very 
clear. "Here's my strategy," he said. "In order for there to be effective 
climate change policy, India and China need to be a part of the process. 
In order to get them in the process they have to be included in setting 
international goals. And the process is beginning here at APEC." 

Russia is a member of the Kyoto Protocol, yet President Vladimir Putin 
said after his private meeting with Bush, "We also discussed the 
environmental issues, in particular in connection with the forthcoming 
APEC summit. I should tell you that we have very close positions on these 
matters." 
President Putin and Prime Minister Howard announced Friday that they 
signed a nuclear cooperation agreement to allow the supply of Australian 
uranium for use in Russia's expanding civil nuclear power industry. 
Howard said that nuclear power "as a zero-emissions technology - has much 
to contribute to addressing global climate change."
The Australian Conservation Foundation warned that the "safeguards relied 
on in the Australia-Russia uranium deal," are "paper promises and cannot 
guarantee that Australian yellowcake will not fuel future Chernobyls and 
nuclear weapons." 
"Russia's nuclear facilities are old and under performing," said the 
Australian Conservation Foundation’s Dave Sweeney. 
"Civil society watchdogs that monitor the nuclear industry in the West – 
like the media, environment groups and unions – are under-resourced and 
under pressure in Russia," he said. 
Although Russia is a signatory to the United Nations' nuclear 
non-proliferation treaty it is actively breaching the treaty’s 
obligations," Sweeney claimed, adding, "Russia recently changed its 
domestic laws so new nuclear reactors can be built without facing 
environmental impact assessments."

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said after his meeting with the 
Chinese president, "Australia and China have reaffirmed our commitment to 
the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, and have 
agreed to continue developing low-emissions energy technologies. This 
underscores China's growing need for cleaner forms of power generation." 
"Australia will commit a further $20 million to our joint work on clean 
coal technologies," said Howard. "We have already funded a carbon capture 
project in Beijing, and a combined cycle demonstration power plant in 
Australia. This recognizes our role as a reliable and responsible major 
energy supplier, and China's continued dependence on coal, alongside other 
energy sources, for its economic development." 
"President Hu and I have also agreed to continue our other work on climate 
change, particularly coal mine methane recovery, energy efficiency, 
climate change science and agriculture," Howard said. "We have agreed on 
the role that the safe and secure use of nuclear power can play in 
reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as other energy sources such as 
geothermal and solar thermal energy." 
"We have also noted today the potentially large role of forestry in 
addressing climate change," Howard said." Australia and China are both 
strong supporters of the Global Initiative on Forests and Climate. 
China has proposed an Asia-Pacific Network on Sustainable Forest 
Rehabilitation and Sustainable Management, which Australia supports. 
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will introduce his 
government's initiative to create a forum of eight countries that have 
tropical rain forests, to President Bush at a meeting scheduled here on 
Saturday as part of efforts to overcome global warming. 
"President Yudhoyono would introduce the initiative at a "Forestry Eight" 
meeting of countries that have tropical rain forests to be held in New 
York," said presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal, according to the 
official Antara news agency. 

Climate change will be high on the agenda of the meeting, as Indonesia has 
a great interest in addressing the issue of climate change with regard to 
the global warming threat, while the U.S. is one of the countries 
initiating efforts to address the issue," said Djalal.
Djala said the major economies meeting to be held in Washington, DC on 
September 27 "reflected the U.S. attention to the global warming threat." 
Friday, President Bush met with leaders from seven Southeast Asian 
economies participating in the APEC meetings who are also members of the 
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN. 
President Bush announced, and the ASEAN leaders welcomed, the creation of 
the position of United States Ambassador to ASEAN. 
Since 2005, under an enhanced partnership with ASEAN, the United States 
has supported environmental programs and improved wildlife conservation in 
Southeast Asia, provided assistance in response to natural disasters, and 
supported an expert on pandemic preparedness and avian influenza at the 
ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta. 
The Democratic Right to Protest at Issue 
An estimated 10,000 anti-APEC protesters have been denied permission to 
march to the edge of police lines during their rally in Sydney today. The 
Stop Bush Coalition had applied to march through the APEC security zone 
but police blocked this route after successfully applying for a court 
order. 
Police approved today's march, which began with a rally at Town Hall, then 
headed along Park Street to Hyde Park. Eleven people have been arrested.

But the New South Wales Supreme Court granted Police Commissioner Andrew 
Scipione's application for an order preventing up to 20,000 people from 
marching to the corner of George and King streets. 
Justice Michael Adams qualified his decision with statements on people's 
right to free speech and assembly. "The powers given to police are very 
unusual in Australia, I think indeed unprecedented," he said of special 
powers granted under an APEC Police Powers law enacted last month. 
"There's no question that there would be many people in the community, and 
I'm not talking about most, but many would resent the extension of such 
powers to the police, even for such a limited period of time," said 
Justice Adams. 
"There might be many who would be tempted to test the police ... in this 
kind of situation and indeed perhaps to provoke the police into action ... 
for the reason of obtaining publicity and putting into debate ... the 
suitability of giving police these powers in a democracy like ours," he 
said. At this hour, thousands have gathered at Sydney Town Hall. The 
majority are peaceful and say they will not allow themselves to be 
provoked by what they say are a group of "neo-nazis" in the area. 
Hundreds of police on foot, in buses and on bikes surround the area and 
say they are prepared for violence. 

In few minutes Thursday, a satirical skit by television comedians 
simulating an arriving APEC leader pierced the $250 million APEC security 
blanket in Sydney. With three black cars, two motorbikes and men in black 
running alongside, the fake motorcade breezed through two police security 
checkpoints, arriving outside the Intercontinental Hotel where President 
Bush is staying, before they were discovered. 
In world's largest export coal port of Newcastle 160 kilometers from 
Sydney, the Local Court Thursday overturned excessive bail conditions set 
on 11 Greenpeacers arrested during a climate change protest the previous 
day. The protesters painted anti-coal slogans on a ship. 
The judge found that many of the bail conditions restricted the activists' 
fundamental right to protest. 
"The absurd APEC security blitz is denying Australians their basic 
democratic rights to protest," said Greenpeace campaigner John Hepburn. 
"Protest and peaceful direct action are a fundamental part of our 
democracy," Hepburn said. "It is the only effective counterbalance to the 
vested interests of the coal industry who are effectively writing climate 
change policy in Australia." 

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