Obama in Asia

Among the many significant aspects of President Obama’s trip to Asia this week are the agreements and programs that are being announced relative to climate and energy.  In India, the headline news was his endorsing India’s quest for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.  But with India being one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with a concomitantly large and growing appetite for energy and a need to provide a better standard of living for its 1.15 billion people, the question of how to develop sustainably and well is paramount.   Among the partnerships that have been furthered during Obama’s visit to India are those on clean energy, energy security, and climate change.  Some salient points include:

• a Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center that will mobilize up to $100 million in public and private sector funding over five years,
• the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) providing $100 million in financing for the $300 million Global Environment Fund (GEF) South Asia Energy Fund (for more, see this release from OPIC),
• reaffirmation of the importance of working bilaterally on climate and energy and also in the multilateral frameworks of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

For much more on India, on an ongoing basis, see what the good folks at the FPA blog on India have to say.

In Indonesia, similar important agreements are being rolled out.  The big picture, of course, is that Indonesia is the largest Muslim nation and the President will have a very important speech to deliver on the subject of how the US can further improve its relations with Islam.  But, as Indonesia is the third-largest contributor of all the world’s nations to the production of anthropogenic greenhouse gases – spelled palm oil – then it becomes critical to address climate and energy.  The communiqué on this from the White House notes, among other things:

• progress on formulating Indonesia’s “REDD+” (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) Strategy,
• furthering of the $119 million SOLUSI partnership, which represents the major areas of Environment and Climate engagement-Science, Oceans, Land Use, Society and Innovation — and means “Solution” in Indonesian,
• more support for the clean energy deployment in Indonesia

There are terrific, important and bold initiatives happening in India and Indonesia.  On to South Korea and Japan.