WASHINGTON, DC:THE BARACK Obama administration is offering to partner with countries in the Caribbean and Latin America in developing new and renewable sources of energy. This will be one of the agenda-topping issues at the Fifth Summit of the Americas to be held April 17-19 in Trinidad and Tobago.

"The president will offer to work with all of the countries in the hemisphere on issues related to energy and climate change. The green agenda is something he will discuss and he will make an offer of partnership that will be open," Jeffrey Davidow, White House adviser to the Summit of the Americas, told Caribbean journalists in Washington on Monday.

Leaders from 34 democracies in North, Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean, will deliberate for two days on the theme 'Securing Our Citizens Future by Promoting Human Prosperity, Energy Security and Environmental Sustainability'.

Brazil, a world leader in the research and development of biofuels, particularly ethanol, already collaborates with the US in sharing this technology with poorer countries. Davidow said the Obama administration wants to expand this energy-development model to assist other countries by focusing on renewable forms, energy conservation and environmentally friendly sources.

According to Davidow, President Obama "will be offering a dialogue in which, if desired, countries will be able to consult us - with our many laboratories and research facilities - and we will consult with other countries, as we do not believe all of the answers come from the United States.

"These are topics that require international exchange of ideas and techniques and scientists. By all means we will continue," Davidow added.

He said the US is also offering to assist countries threatened by deforestation, which is caused, in some cases, by the "poorest of the poor" needing the wood for fuel. This problem is particularly extensive in French-speaking Haiti.

Meanwhile, David Morris, director of the Summit of the Americas secretariat at the Organisation of American States (OAS), disclosed that the draft declaration addressed a variety of energy-related issues. Among them were the diversity of energy sources; responsible use of energy grids; development of biofuels; carbon emission; energy supply and demand; environmental sustainability; and impact on climate change.

unsettled

Morris said there is an unsettled issue about the safe use of nuclear energy, which could still be included in the final Declaration of Port-of-Spain.

The draft declaration also sets a number of specific goals for countries of the Americas. These include generating a minimum of 50 per cent of national primary energy demands with renewable and low-carbon energy sources by 2050 and ensuring universal access to accurate and reliable information on energy and environmental issues by 2012.

byron.buckley@gleanerjm.com