U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said that meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will be impossible without revolutionary new energy technologies being developed by U.S.-led research.

Speaking to European global climate policy experts last week, Abraham pointed out that currently there are no technologies that significantly cut emissions of gases linked to global warming. Until the technologies are discovered, greenhouse gas reduction targets in global-climate-treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol will not be achievable without “severe economic hardship,” he said.

Abraham also took the chance to address the United States’ abstention from the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty that U.S. officials believe would hamper the country’s economy while exempting large nations such as China and India from complying with greenhouse gas-reduction targets.

“The United States is neither ashamed of its position on Kyoto nor indifferent to the challenges of climate change,” Abraham said. “The United States is investing billions of dollars to address these challenges.”

Noting that nations that seek to cut emissions “face one hard and clear choice,” he said, “Either dramatic greenhouse gas reductions will come at the expense of economic growth and improved living standards, or breakthrough energy technologies that change the game entirely will allow us to reduce emissions while, at the same time, we maintain economic growth and improve the world’s standard of living.”

Among possible solutions, Abraham hit on the hydrogen fuel initiative, clean coal technologies and the U.S. led carbon sequestration program, which would remove carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and store it deep underground.

“Hydrogen represents one of the most attractive options to meet both our energy and environmental goals,” Abraham said, adding that the U.S. has pledged $1.7 billion over the next five years to fund the ambitious Freedom CAR and hydrogen fuel initiative to develop emission-free automotive operating systems that run on hydrogen. The Energy Secretary noted that the U.S. is partnering with other countries on research in order to “accelerate the transition to a global hydrogen economy.

On the clean coal front, Abraham focused on the Energy Department’s “FutureGen” project, a $1 billion research effort aimed at creating a pollution-free coal-fired power plant. “FutureGen will be one of the boldest steps our nation takes toward a pollution-free energy future,” he said. “Virtually every aspect of the plant will be based on cutting-edge technology.”

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