US To Fund Clean Energy Technology

The US is to commit US$2bn over the next three years to a new international fund to promote clean energy technologies and fight climate change, President Bush has announced.

Speaking in his final State of the Union speech, Bush said the new fund would help developing nations like India and China make greater use of clean energy sources.

Bush has also called for the US to cut its dependence on oil, saying more of the country's electricity should be generated from clean coal, solar power, wind energy and nuclear power.

"Our security, our prosperity and our environment all require reducing our dependence on oil," Bush says.

He also encouraged more investment in developing advanced batteries and renewable fuels to run new cars and trucks.

The US is also heading a conference in Hawaii this week, with the most polluting industrialised and developing countries meeting to forge an alternative agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, due to expire in 2012.

The US rejected the Kyoto Protocol to cut global greenhouse emissions, saying it could damage the US economy while unfairly exempting developing countries from cutting harmful emissions.

By Ozge Ibrahim