Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the Asia-Pacific Partnership?

 This is a voluntary partnership among seven major Asia-Pacific nations to accelerate the development and deployment of cleaner, more efficient technologies to meet national pollution reduction, energy security and climate change concerns in ways that promote economic development and reduce poverty. These seven countries are: Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the United States.

2. How is the Partnership organized?

The Policy and Implementation Committee (PIC), established in the Partnership’s Charter, oversees the Partnership as a whole, guides the eight Task Forces it created and periodically reviews their work, and provides direction to the Administrative Support Group. The PIC is comprised of high-level government representatives from each of the Partner countries.

The Task Forces were established in eight sectoral areas of work to deal with issues identified in the Work Plan and to develop Action Plans endorsed by all Partners, which include both immediate and medium-term activities.

The Administrative Support Group, authorized by the Partnership’s Charter and currently hosted by the United States, provides support to the PIC and the Partners more broadly and coordinates Partnership communications and activities.

3. Who is involved in this Partnership?

A diverse group of government agencies and private sector companies, from each of the seven Partner countries is actively engaged in this Partnership.

Task Force leadership;

Aluminum  – Australia (Chair), United States (Co-Chair)

Buildings and Appliances  – South Korea (Chair), United States (Co-Chair)

Cement  – Japan (Chair)

Cleaner Fossil Energy  – Australia (Chair), China (Co-Chair)

Coal Mining  – United States (Chair), India (Co-Chair)

Power Generation and Transmission – United States (Chair), China (Co-Chair)

Renewable Energy and Distributed Generation  – South Korea (Chair), Australia (Co-Chair)

Steel  – Japan (Chair), India (Co-Chair)

4. Why are these seven countries involved in the Partnership, while others are not?

These seven countries – Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the United States – have a history of close bilateral and multilateral cooperation on clean development, energy, and climate change efforts. The seven countries share a common interest in developing and deploying cleaner, more efficient technologies to meet national pollution reduction, energy security and climate change challenges in ways that promote economic development and reduce poverty. Together, these countries account for approximately half of the world’s economy, population and global energy use.

5. What are your goals, and how will you achieve them?

Each country has its own goals and strategies for development, energy policy, and climate change. Through the partnership these countries can improve the quality and enhance their capacity of their national policy goals and strategies. We will work together to remove impediments to the deployment of cleaner technologies and help round out each others' strategies. We expect that all seven countries will build on our already strong bilateral programs to give enhanced programmatic substance to this new partnership.

6. What is different about this partnership?

Several things make this partnership unique.

First, it focuses not solely on climate change, but on a suite of complementary energy, economic and environmental goals. This broad focus makes sense on the ground, and it makes sense as a way to build consensus for significant action.

Second, it engages the private sector in an unprecedented way. Companies like GE, Caterpillar, Peabody, AEP are all involved in our efforts, as are major associations. In this sense it is a true public-private partnership, and we expect that as the Partnership develops we will build on the considerable interest we have gained from the private sector thus far.

Third, it is "bottom up" and results-oriented. Rather than trying to synthesize a grand solution among countries with very different interests we are building cooperation activity-by-activity and project-by-project, which in turn builds on national goals and objectives.

7. What U.S. companies are involved in the Partnership?

Please click here  to see the most current list of the members of the U.S. companies that are memebers of the eight task forces.

8. What does APP actually do for the U.S.?

The APP in the U.S.:

• Provides opportunities to develop and/or expand business relationships in APP countries.

• Facilitates important communication on policy and regulatory issues among and between government officials in APP countries.

• Strengthens connections between regional and local leaders in clean development among Partner countries.

• Leverages the knowledge and funding of a diverse group of partners to enhance the development of clean energy projects.

• Creates opportunities for industry engagement with government on policy, legal, and regulatory barriers to the diffusion of clean and energy efficient technologies.