Speeches and Articles by Former Consul General James B. Cunningham

U.S. Consul General James B. Cunningham's remarks
At the Pollution Prevention/Energy Efficiency Project Signing Ceremony
Between Westminster Securities and Focus Energy Ltd.

4 June 2008

(As prepared for delivery)

Assistant Secretary of Commerce David Bohigian (second right) and U.S. Consul General James B. Cunningham (right) witness the P2E2 signing ceremony between Westminster Securities and Focus Energy Ltd.

Greetings and Welcome. For the past several years, I and my colleagues have advocated a Hong Kong-based mechanism for cleaning up pollution in China and throughout Asia that we call P2E2 (Pollution Prevention, Energy Efficiency). The essential feature of this mechanism, which now has several different financing models, is that polluting establishments can clean their facilities with no up-front net investment by the manufacturer.

With P2E2, we seek to create the means to enable the business community to quickly launch hundreds, even thousands, of environment improvement projects, and to engage firms throughout Asia.

We are here today to note another step forward. I want to welcome Assistant Secretary David Bohigian from the Department of Commerce back to Hong Kong, and to welcome Mr. Richard Price from Westminster Securities and Mr. Simon Cheung from Focus Energy. This event marks cooperation between an American investor and a Hong Kong-based Energy and Environment Service Company to develop energy efficient projects in the cement sector in mainland China. This harnessing of private capital and technical expertise will help factories invest in technology that will improve energy efficiency and reduce pollution, while also saving money and reducing operating costs -- leveraging these long-term savings to finance the technology improvements.

In fact, Assistant Secretary Bohigian will be leading a roundtable discussion this afternoon for an update on the many ways in which Hong Kong firms are using P2E2 to address these local and regional energy and pollution issues.

I firmly believe that the private sector must take a leading role in energy efficiency and pollution control projects. I commend Westminster Securities and Focus Energy for doing just that. Today's contract signing is an excellent example of combining smart capital and smart technology to improve the environment, the goal of P2E2.