Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate

In the recently concluded 12th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meeting in Vientiane, an important international agreement was reached among some leading countries in the world. The Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP4CDC) comprises Australia, United States, China, India, Japan and South Korea. This agreement is in line with the Kyoto Protocol in combatting climate change, however, the partnership does not enforce mandatory limits for greenhouse emissions. The limits are self-mandated but important considering the founding countries account for around half of global greenhouse emissions. ASEAN countries are not yet part of this partnership.

An article regarding the new Partnership and a small comparison to the Kyoto Protocol can be read here. Quoting from the article..
'..the Asia-Pacific partnership recognises the unique needs of both developing nations and resources-supplying countries. It does not seek to mandate emission targets on disparate national jurisdictions and societies but seeks to promote clean energy technologies appropriate to them. And it proposes to allow a "clean development mechanism" and the workings of competitive clean energy source pricings to respond to national and international market forces.
This ensures that climate change is minimised and sustainable development aspirations are maximised without heavy impacts on national economies.'

Except for the short short vision statement, not many details are available at this time.

Relevant links..
Wikipedia - APP4CDC

Please also check a short discussion about APP4CDC in worldchanging.com. Although I have my own apprehensions (unfair at this point of time!!), I would like to see something positive come out of it.