A NEW partnership of six major Asia-Pacific nations aiming to deploy and commercialise cleaner energy technologies will be launched on January 11-12 at the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate Change in Sydney, Australia.

The voluntary initiative among Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the US is designed to accelerate the development and use of cleaner, more efficient technology in a way that promotes economic development and reduces poverty, said a statement. The new initiative is a complement, not an alternative, to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to that pact, it added.

The US and Australia have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol.

Participating nations have formed task forces to study the following sectors: cleaner fossil energy, renewable energy and distributed generation, power generation and transmission, aluminium, steel, cement, buildings and appliances, and mining.

The US has a specific two-phase regulatory target to cut harmful air pollution by nearly 70 per cent from power plants in 2010 and 2015, said the statement.

Another target is to cut the sulphur from diesel fuel by 99 per cent in 2007 and then cut nitrogen oxide by 90 percent in new vehicles starting in 2007.

China has a new regulatory commitment in its five-year plan to desulphurise 46 per cent of the coal-fired power plants and improve their energy efficiency by 20 per cent by 2010.

The US expects to commit significant financial resources to the partnership.

Collaboration areas include energy efficiency, clean coal, liquefied natural gas, carbon capture and storage, methane capture and use, civilian nuclear power, rural/village energy systems, advanced transportation, building and home construction and operation, agriculture and forestry, hydropower, wind power, solar power, and other renewable energy sources.

Areas for mid- to long-term collaboration include hydrogen, nanotechnologies, advanced biotechnologies, and next-generation nuclear fission and fusion energy.