AUSTRALIA TO INVEST US$46 MLN IN CUTTING GREENHOUSE EMISSIONS.

CANBERRA, Nov 1 Asia Pulse - Prime Minister John Howard has announced $A60 million ($US46.38 million) in funding on projects to help cut greenhouse emissions, including almost million for clean coal technology and $A11 million for coal mining.

Two days after the Stern report warned of the dire consequences of not tackling climate change, Mr Howard and Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane announced funding for 42 projects to be developed in collaboration with five other countries in the Asia-Pacific Partnership.

The other countries are the United States, Japan, South Korea, China, and India.

In his report, Sir Nicholas Stern slated Australia for not ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, which sets targets for reducing emissions.

But Mr Macfarlane said the timing of today's announcement was a complete coincidence.

Mr Howard said the projects showed how important the new Asia-Pacific climate bloc, known as the AP6, would be to cutting emissions.

"The Asia-Pacific Partnership includes countries that represent about half of the world's emissions, energy use, GDP (gross domestic product) and population, and is an important initiative that engages, for the first time, the key greenhouse-gas emitting countries in the Asia-Pacific region," Mr ...