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Chairman James L. Connaughton, Council on Environmental Quality and Assistant Secretary Karen Harbert, Department of Energy, in the Dean Acheson Auditorium at the State Department in DC.

Crikey! Should we start worrying? The White House Office of Communications press release given out today (Friday NZT) on the subject of energy security and climate change was edged in black. Are we that close to the planet’s demise?

Representatives of 17 entities—state and multi-state—are in DC for a two-day conference first proposed by President Bush at the G8 Leaders Conference back in May this year. Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union (Portugal and the European Commission), France, Germany, Indonesia, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, the UK and the UN are represented.

Today’s sessions, which are closed to the press, have allowed the participants to state their national priorities on greenhouse gases and energy security, and address public and private sector initiatives in the areas of technology development, commercialization, financing, and the deployment of solutions.

According to the press release, this meeting is part of a new initiative “to further the shared objectives of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing energy security and efficiency, and promoting strong economic growth.” The ultimate aim is to have something viable in place to replace the Kyoto agreement when it expires in 2012.

When asked why Europe can implement cuts in greenhouse emissions but the United States can’t, Chairman Connaughton, of the Council on Environmental Quality, replied that the European Union’s commitment is very recent and “we have a higher level of ambition”. He also said “the market has done more than policies” with respect to reducing emissions and that among government incentives, the cheapest is to subsidize farmers.

Assistant Secretary Karen Harbert, of the Department of Energy, stressed the years of investment in science that is the backbone of US energy policy. “Human capital” and “intellectual revolution” were the keys to technology breakthroughs, she said, echoing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s statement earlier in the week at the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Event on Climate Technology that: “Put simply, the world needs a technological revolution.”