This week, Sydney will play host to the most significant international gathering ever to be held in Australia - the 15th APEC Economic Leaders Meeting. Leaders have agreed to my proposal to discuss clean development, energy security and climate change.
Today I am pleased to announce new funding for three measures to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions through international cooperation.
The Australian Government is committing seed funding of $5 million to initiate the Asia-Pacific Network for Energy Technology. APNet will improve linkages between researchers in the APEC region on emerging low emissions energy and energy efficiency technologies, accelerating their development and contributing to medium- and long-term reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
I am also pleased to announce a new $50 million commitment to the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate. Australia's initial commitment of $100 million which I announced in January 2006 has been fully committed to 63 regional projects. This second Australian commitment will harness the great enthusiasm of members by funding a new round of cooperative projects to develop and deploy cleaner more efficient technologies.
Thirdly, I am please to announce a new initiative, the $15.7 million Asia-Pacific Forestry Skills and Capacity Building Programme, to assist regional countries improve the ability of their forests to capture and store carbon dioxide and help to develop their forest management expertise.
It is also my pleasure today to release the latest report from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics entitled