Focusing on current problems and developing clean energy is the core of Sino-US cooperation in the environment and energy sectors, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said yesterday.

Solutions should center on technologies, policies and various other forms of cooperation, Paulson said in a speech titled "Meeting the Challenges: A Partnership on Energy and the Environment", which he delivered at the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"To make existing or new technologies affordable is significant and will require reducing market access barriers," Paulson said.

"For instance, I hear from some government officials about the need for US technology to help clear up China's rivers and control pollution from China's smoke stacks, but technology can be expensive, in part due to tariffs and non-tariff barriers," he said.

The generation and transmission of clean energies to secure power supplies are also significant steps for bilateral cooperation, he added.

Paulson pointed to the impacts of price controls on fuels in China, saying that the consequences of those policies extend to the power sector, where price caps on electricity and fuel had contributed to power outages during the snowstorms in affected regions earlier this year.

High priority should also be given to eliminating tariffs or non-tariff barriers on products, goods and services to improve the health and welfare of the Chinese people, he said.

(China Daily April 4, 2008)