I welcome the announcement overnight by the United States of dates for a meeting of major economies to take forward President Bush's initiative to build a broader coalition for practical international climate change action.
Australia will join 13 of the world's leading economies and the United Nations at the meeting, to be hosted by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice in Washington DC on 27 and 28 September.
The meeting will follow my discussions with other leaders of APEC economies in Sydney on 8 and 9 September, at which climate change, energy security and economic growth and development will be major themes.
The APEC leaders meeting in Sydney and the major economies meeting in Washington DC will be an important influence on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change meetings, to be held in Bali in December.
They represent key opportunities for developed and developing economies alike to focus on real and practical solutions to climate change that enhance energy security and preserve economic growth and development.
They reflect an emerging new international consensus on climate change that goes beyond the ideological posturing and lost opportunities for truly comprehensive and realistic action inherent in the Kyoto protocol.
Australia is at the forefront of practical initiatives, such as the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (AP6), and the Global Forests Initiative, for which we hosted a major conference last week in Sydney.
These initiatives and the APEC and major economies meetings recognise that climate change requires a portfolio of policy responses - in areas such as energy efficiency, clean energy technologies, and forestry - as well as ways to adapt to changes in the climate, whilst maintaining economic growth.
We will continue to work closely with the United States and our other APEC and regional partners on a genuinely international framework for dealing with climate change, including at the major economies meeting announced by the US Administration overnight.