This is historical material, "frozen in time." The web site is no longer updated and links to external web sites and some internal pages will not work.
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release February 3, 2000
International Clean Energy Initiative
February 3, 2000
To accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy
technologies around the world, President Clinton is proposing the Clean
Energy for the 21st Century: International Initiative -- a $200 million
multi-agency effort (a more than 100 percent increase over FY 2000
enacted levels) to encourage open competitive markets and remove market
barriers to clean energy technologies in developing and transition
countries and to provide new incentives for clean energy technology
innovation and export. This initiative will promote U.S. exports and
create high-value jobs, and will help countries power their economic
development while fighting air pollution and climate change.
Window of Opportunity for America and the World. Developing country
energy use will overtake that of industrial countries in the next 20
years. These energy technology markets are projected to total $4 to $5
trillion over the next 20 years and $15 to $25 trillion over the next 50
years. Developing country energy use is expected to account for
three-fourths of the increase in global energy use between now and 2050.
Advanced, low-polluting energy technologies can provide these energy
services efficiently, but existing markets often do not value these
benefits. In addition, environmentally superior options often carry
higher up-front costs, may be unfamiliar, or are perceived as more risky
by decision-makers in developing countries. The initiative builds on a
recent set of recommendations by the President's Committee of Advisors
on Science and Technology (PCAST) and is directed at leveling the
playing field between cleaner U.S. energy technologies and services and
polluting alternatives.
Real Benefits At Home and Abroad. The initiative will help lay the
technical and policy foundation that will allow developing and
transition countries to build a clean energy future, leapfrogging past
the polluting energy technologies used by the industrial countries,
while building competitive markets open to U.S. firms. The goals of
this initiative include:
- Doubling clean energy technology exports by 2005, creating as much
as $5 billion in new export revenues for U.S. companies and as many as
100,000 new U.S. jobs.
- Cutting energy use in targeted country buildings and appliances in
half through advanced building design tools and building equipment codes
and standards.
- Developing integrated renewable energy technologies that have the
potential to power the full range of energy services for the 2 billion
people in developing countries that do not now have electricity.
- Sharply reducing sulfur, particulate, and greenhouse gas emissions
by developing advanced coal-fired power plants and low-cost hydrogen
fuels.
- Maximizing use of combined heat & power systems through technical
and policy assistance.
- Reducing transition and developing country methane emissions from
pipelines and other fossil sources by an amount equal to 100 million
metric tons of carbon per year by 2005.
- Providing technical and policy support to encourage the development
of natural gas grids.
- Reducing energy use in the industrial sector through the
introduction of best practice methods, including advanced sensors and
controls, and energy efficient motor drive systems.
- Conducting research in nuclear energy to address cost, waste,
safety, and proliferation concerns.
Initiative Structure. This initiative will streamline current
bureaucratic procedures to better assist U.S. firms wishing to invest in
clean energy projects in developing and transition countries. By doing
that, it will encourage public-private partnerships with foreign
counterparts to demonstrate clean energy technologies, drive down their
cost, and facilitate private sector financing for their large-scale
deployment. It will also encourage open, competitive markets while
protecting public interests. The initiative will employ a range of
proven policy tools, including U.S. technical and policy assistance to
developing countries through personnel exchanges, conducting
collaborative R&D with key foreign research groups, developing
integrated renewable energy, energy efficiency, and advanced fossil
energy technologies and pilot projects, and providing a range of trade
supports to expand clean energy exports.
The initiative's requested $103 million increase for these activities
includes an additional $49 million for activities at the Department of
Energy; $30 million for the U.S. Agency for International Development;
$15 million for the Export-Import Bank; $5 million for the Trade and
Development Agency; and, $4 million for the Department of Commerce.
###