Reducing Trade Barriers Critical To Spreading Green Technology, Says Experts

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

Rapid advancement of technology coupled with reduced trade barriers are the most important factors in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, witnesses told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee during a hearing Tuesday.

“An agreement that focuses on technology offers a path forward that developed and developing countries can embrace, “ said Karen Harbert, President and CEO of the Institute for 21st Century Energy.

Harbert said during her testimony that an effort to reduce global tariffs and non-tariff barriers on clean energy goods and services is essential in ensuring that alternate energy technologies can penetrate the global marketplace.

“Future growth of the U.S. clean energy economy will depend on access to foreign markets,” Jake Colvin, Vice President of the National Foreign Trade Council said in his testimony. “Demand for environmental goods and services is growing rapidly in developing countries, which offer significant opportunities for U.S. companies.”

Colvin explained that U.S. exporters are currently facing disproportionally high tariffs that impede their ability to sell environmental goods and services abroad.

“Reducing these impediments would allow U.S. companies to capture a larger share of the the more than $600 billion environmental goods and services market,” Colvin said.

President Barack Obama expressed reservations earlier this year about tariff provisions included in the House climate legislation, the House bill would levy tariffs beginning in 2020 on environmental goods and services from countries that have not committed to control greenhouse gas emissions.

Senate Democrats who represent states dependent on manufacturing have said they will not vote for a bill that does not include “border adjustments” to safe-keep U.S. presence in the market.

Agreements regarding trade policy will be a critical component as to what the U.S. will commit to during the United Nation's climate conference in Copenhagen in December, where 190 nations will draft an agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

IEA Leader Nobuo Tanaka and Assistant Secretary Karen Alderman Harbert Review US Energy Policies

Nobuo Tanaka, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), today led a meeting used to provide an in-depth review of US energy policy.

Tanaka, along with Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs at the US Department of Energy, Karen Alderman Harbert, forecast how the United States could use energy more efficiently, particularly in the future. Harbert discussed the progress achieved by the Bush Administration regarding energy use and conservation.

Tanaka and Harbert urged that Americans continue to limit carbon dioxide emission in order to continue to improve our energy usage efficiency.

Tanaka maintained that the US is has been relatively successful when it comes to energy usage, but should strive for improvement. Without a conscious effort from American citizens and lawmakers, warned Tanaka and Harbert, the progress made by our nation regarding energy conservation may not be long lasting.