The Australian
By: Michael Stutchbury, Economics editor
Australia has brought together the world's two major greenhouse gas polluters, China and the US, to search for common ground on cutting carbon emissions -- including clean coal technologies -- while protecting security of energy supplies. The top Chinese, US and Australian climate change negotiators will gather for two days this week in Washington at a political and business meeting organised by the Melbourne-based Global Foundation and Georgetown University.
The US-China-Australia Dialogue on Energy Security and Climate Change will include the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, and leading US multinational firms including aluminium producer Alcoa, aircraft manufacturer Boeing and giant conglomerate General Electric. It also will include US analysts associated with the two US presidential candidates, senators John McCain and Barack Obama.
The meeting follows a summit in Beijing between Chinese and Australian political and business interests. The April meeting was attended by Kevin Rudd and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong. Both meetings are part of the Australia Unlimited program, supported by The Australian.
The US is the only major developed nation not to have ratified the Kyoto Protocol targets for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. As a developing nation, China was not required to sign up to Kyoto. Australia is the world's biggest coal exporter, mostly to East Asian economies such as China and Japan.
Global Foundation secretary Steve Howard said the Washington meeting would canvas common interests in investing in emissions-reducing technology such as clean coal technology.