Building on the Asian Climate Initiative: A Partnership to Produce Radical Innovation in Energy Systems

Abstract

Asian Pacific countries that are particularly vulnerable to climate change recently endorsed the concept of an international public-private partnership to accelerate the application of greenhouse-benign energy such as renewables and efficiency measures. Rather than a global regulatory apparatus, this initiative seeks ultimately to stabilize greenhouse concentrations by speeding the time benign energy becomes cheaper than conventional fossil fuels. Such a South-North partnership could take many forms. These might include a dramatic reorientation of industrialized country investment in energy R&D to focus more on renewables and energy efficiency, public-private collaboration to enhance near-competitive renewable technologies, and the use of multilateral and bilateral development funds to spur private investment in such initiatives in developing countries. This proposal was strongly endorsed by the February 1995 Asia-Pacific Leaders Conference on Climate Change hosted by the Philippines. This article is adapted from the underlying concept paper that triggered the Manila Conference endorsement of this approach.