President Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — meeting in India — have agreed to boost bilateral energy collaboration, the White House announced early Monday.
"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Barack Obama reaffirmed their countries' strong commitment to taking vigorous action to address climate change, ensure mutual energy security, and build a clean energy economy that will drive investment, job creation, and economic growth throughout the 21st century," the White House said in a statement. Here's a summary of the agreement, which focuses on natural gas, energy efficiency in commercial buildings and other areas.
Clinton hopes for progress at Cancun climate meeting, goes solar down under
Over the next three years, Australia and the United States will fund up to 15 additional scholars to work specifically on climate change and clean energy. We hope these clean-tech Fulbright scholars will do work that advances our understanding of climate change, and leads to new commercially-viable solutions," Clinton said.
At a Melbourne press conference Sunday with Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Clinton touted steps the two countries are taking even without a global emissions-cutting deal — including a new joint solar-power-research agreement.
"I am one who believed strongly that we accomplished less than what we should have at Copenhagen, but we did come out with an agreement, and we are committed to working with our partners around the world, particularly the Government of Australia, to ensure that we make progress again at Cancun," Clinton said, referring to last year's Copenhagen U.N. summit that produced only a weak, voluntary agreement.
"And so, rather than just waiting for global agreements, we have decided, between our two governments, to take steps on our own. First, we are launching, as the prime minister said, a new solar energy research collaboration. We have a common goal of making solar energy competitive with conventional sources by the middle of this decade, 2015. The good news is that the price of photovoltaic modules have dropped about 50 percent in the past 3 years. But to meet our goal we have to drive the price down even more," Clinton added.
She warned against reading Obama's admission that cap-and-trade legislation is dead as evidence of a wavering U.S. commitment to battling climate change.
Obama acknowledged after the Democrats took a beating in the midterm elections that cap-and-trade isn't going anywhere on Capitol Hill, but Clinton said the comment wasn't meant to describe "anything other than what is happening inside the United States."
"The president is still very committed to the United States addressing climate change, making investments in clean energy, and we will be looking at a range of options to take, including ... the regulatory route, which we have already been doing in concert with the legislative route," she said.
NY Times A1: Green-power projects scuttled over cost fears
"Even as many politicians, environmentalists and consumers want renewable energy and reduced dependence on fossil fuels, a growing number of projects are being canceled or delayed because governments are unwilling to add even small amounts to consumers' electricity bills," the New York Times reports.
