Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
continue to use these bilateral and multilateral efforts to promote
clean coal technologies.
Energy Efficiency.
The Obama Administration has aggressively
promoted energy efficiency through the Clean Energy Ministerial and
key bilateral programs. The cost- effective opportunities are
enormous: The Ministerial' s Super-Efficient Equipment and
Appliance Deployment Initiative and its Global Superior Energy
Performance Partnership are helping to accelerate the global adoption
of standards and practices that would cut energy waste equivalent to
more than 650 mid-size power plants by 2030. We will work to
expand these efforts focusing on several critical areas, including:
improving building efficiency, reducing energy consumption at water
and wastewater treatment facilities, and expanding global appliance
standards.
Negotiating Global Free Trade in Environmental Goods and Services
:
The U.S. will work with trading partners to launch negotiations at the World
Trade Organization towards global free trade in environmental goods,
including clean energy technologies such as solar, wind, hydro and
geothermal. The U.S. will build on the consensus it recently forged among the
21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies in this area. In
2011, APEC economies agreed to reduce tariffs to 5 percent or less by 2015 on
a negotiated list of 54 environmental goods. The APEC list will serve as a
foundation for a global agreement in the WTO, with participating countries
expanding the scope by adding products of interest. Over the next year, we
will work towards securing participation of countries which account for 90
percent of global trade in environmental goods, representing roughly $481
billion in annual environmental goods trade. We will also work in the Trade in
Services
Agreement
negotiations
towards
achieving
free
trade
in
environmental services.
Phasing Out Subsidies that Encourage Wasteful Consumption of Fossil
Fuels:
The International Energy Agency estimates that the phase-out of fossil
fuel subsidies - which amount to more than $500 billion annually - would
lead to a 10 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below business as
usual by 2050. At the 2009 G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh, the United States
successfully advocated for a commitment to phase out these subsidies, and we
have since won similar commitments in other fora such as APEC. President
Obama is calling for the elimination of U.S. fossil fuel tax subsidies in his
