The US, as one of the world’s major polluters, has faced a lot of criticism for refusing to sign the Kyoto protocol which mandates lowering of emissions among industrial countries. Australia, the world’s major coal producer, also refused to sign.

But the main point, according to spokesmen for the Bush administration, which held the US back from ratifying the Kyoto protocol, was that it applied only to industrialized nations, and was not required of such huge developing giants as India and China.

The new agreement is not intended to replace the Kyoto protocol, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick explained, when the agreement was announced, but to complement it, by bringing in the developing countries, and offering them the most modern technology to help lower emissions. Despite the fact that the US did not ratify the Kyoto pact, it has proceeded voluntarily and been able to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 0.3 percent while the EU’s 25 members have increased to 3.4 percent.

The new agreement, known rather cumbersomely as the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, was signed by Australia, China, the US, India, and South Korea. ASEAN members were invited to join the pact.

The "Catch-22" problem facing developing countries, as Deputy Secretary Zoellick pointed out, is to expand and develop without hurting the environment. If environmental restrictions are too severe, growing economies are slowed down. The Kyoto pact affected only developed countries. One of the world’s fastest growing economies is China and its energy needs are met in large part by coal, a known polluter of the environment. The new agreement would offer China the latest in "clean coal technology" and also encourage the developing nations, including China, to develop alternate sources of energy such as wind power, solar power, hydropower, and geothermal power, which provide energy but do not pollute the environment.

Environmentalists suggest that since the changes recommended in the new agreement are voluntary and not mandatory, nothing will happen. But if the developed countries do supply the rapidly developing countries with the latest technologies to protect the environment, the agreement can be, as Zoellick suggests, a "win-win situation" for them both.

The new group will hold its first formal meeting in November in Australia in preparation for the next United Nations conference on global climate change which is scheduled to be held in Canada in early December. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Energy secretary Samuel Bodman are expected to attend.