US and Australia Embark on Clean Energy Partnership

A joint initiative to combat climate change is being undertaken by the Unites States and Australia. The two countries will collaborate on research into solar energy with the hope of cutting the costs of harnessing it to the levels of conventional fossil fuels within the next five years.

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was speaking at the Pixel Building Clean Tech Event in Melbourne when she said that the two countries were launching a new solar energy research collaboration.

She said that under this initiative, the two governments will share both the costs and the benefits of research and development, which will speed up innovation.

Hillary Clinton also said that the common goal was of making solar energy competitive with conventional sources by the middle of this decade, 2015.

The Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said that the government would commit $50 million of renewable energy funding announced in this year's federal budget to joint research into solar technology projects.