The world's biggest polluters gathered in Australia today to discuss ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, with debate over burning coal dominating proceedings.
Promoting technologies that reduce emissions of carbon dioxide in coal - with names like gasification, oxy fuel and geosequestration - grabbed the spotlight at the inaugural two-day meeting of the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate.
The meeting in Sydney brings together senior ministers from the United States, Australia, Japan, China, South Korea and India along with executives from energy and resources firms.
These countries account for nearly half of the world's global greenhouse gas emissions.
Protesters on the streets of Sydney today focused their criticism on coal as a major cause of global warming.
Industry executives say the protests reflect the understanding that coal is a crucial energy source for many countries at the meeting and will remain so for decades to come.
Rather than ban a fuel that accounts for around a quarter of the world's energy generation, the industry argues that ways must should be developed to make coal burn cleaner or to prevent the carbon dioxide produced from coal-fired power plants from reaching the atmosphere.
Considered the dirtiest of all fossil fuels, coal is undergoing a resurgence of sorts in part because it is a cheap alternative to oil and gas, especially in China and India.
Utilities in the United States are planning 130 new coal-fired plants, and another 20 or so plants that rely on coal gasification, a process that turns solid coal into gas. The viability of coal in the long term, industry supporters say, depends on bringing green technologies online.
Environmentalists say the meeting diverts attention from the US and Australian governments' refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol that commits countries to targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2012.
"Emissions from Australia and United States are spiralling out of control. We need rapid deployment of clean energy such as wind and solar today," said Erwin Jackson, of the Australian Conservation Foundation.
"If the conference just throws research dollars to the coal industry to clean up their act in 15 to 20 years, we've missed an opportunity."
Washington and Canberra say such targets will harm their economies.
AP