Top Nations Talk Energy Efficiency

With oil prices at record levels, energy ministers from the world's top economies Sunday promised to increase their investments in energy efficiency and environmentally friendly technology.

The Ministers, from the Group of Eight nations and China, India and South Korea, also encouraged oil producers to increase output and asked for cooperation between producers and buyers, according to an Associated Press report.

"We also have to address too the demand side of the equation," said John Hutton, Britain's business secretary, who was quoted in the AP report. "We will do that through new measures to improve energy efficiency (and) accelerate our moves to a new, low-carbon form of energy generation."

The Group of Eight nations are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the U.S. Together with China, India and South Korea, they account for 65% of the world's energy consumption, the report noted.

News of the weekend meeting in Aomori, Japan, came as the average cost of gasoline in the U.S. passed $4 for the first time, a painful milestone for consumers and businesses. On Friday, crude oil futures climbed more than $10 to settle at an all-time high of $138.54.

The nations meeting Sunday did not pledge specific amounts of money they will invest in new technology but said they would establish goals in line with the International Energy Agency's call for a huge expansion of investment in energy efficiency, according to the AP report.

As an example, the G8 nations said they would launch 20 demonstration projects by 2010 on technology that allows power plants to capture the carbon emissions they generate and store them underground, the report noted.

Differences remain among G8 nations on some issues. The U.S., Canada and Britain said they plan to build new nuclear reactors as a way of generating energy without producing the carbon emissions that scientists believe are responsible for global warming, the report said. Yet Germany reiterated its plans to phase out nuclear power.