On Monday, U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman concluded his weekend visit to Aomori, Japan where the energy ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized countries (G-eight) and from China, India and South Korea met to discuss ways to enhance global energy security while simultaneously combating global climate change. The G8 includes Canada, Russia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The high-ranking officials agreed to establish the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation (IPEEC).
The IPEEC will serve as a forum for facilitating a broad range of actions that yield high efficiency gains. The partnership will support on-going work of the participating countries and relevant organizations, exchanging information of best practices, policies and measures and developing public-private partnership programs in key energy consuming sectors as well as on a cross-sectoral basis.
The IPEEC members will also develop public-private partnerships for improving energy efficiency, participate in joint research and development efforts and facilitate the dissemination of energy-related products and services. The energy ministers plan to hold the first IPEEC meeting before the end of the year.
In their joint statement, the ministers committed to "enhance vigorously" their efforts to address any supply disruption risks, to improve energy efficiency, to promote non-conventional oil and alternative energy resources and to diversify supply routes. They also noted that developing alternative transport and fuel technologies is essential to reduce the oil dependence of transportation throughout the world.
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