The Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate : What it is and What it is Not

There has been a growing interest in the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, a multilateral initiative of six founding partner countries in the region - Australia, China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea and the US - for addressing air pollution, energy security and climate protection in a way that facilitates development and poverty eradication. Canada became the 7th member in October 2007. This paper presents an overview of the Asia Pacific Partnership, beginning with a literature review. This is followed by a comparison of the initiative with the EU energy and climate change package and an examination of the role that the Partnership can play in the emerging landscape of reorganising climate cooperation in both its formal and informal aspects: bilateral and multilateral technology partnerships which are compatible with the UNFCCC objective; and development of tools for measuring progress such as benchmarking, performance indicators and energy efficiency or environment indices. Through coordination with actions in each aspect in other parts of the world or those on a global scale, the Partnership could have wider implications beyond its partner countries