Obama, Japan PM to agree on green technology

United States and Japan will agree this week to cooperate in developing environmental and energy technologies, including capturing and storing emissions, a Japanese newspaper reported on Thursday.                                           

As no major breakthrough is expected on a feud over a U.S. military base at a meeting between president Barack Obama and prime minister Yukio Hatoyama on Friday, environment and energy cooperation will likely take the centre stage at Friday's summit in Tokyo, the Nikkei business daily added.                                           

The two leaders are expected to agree on technical cooperation in five areas -- smart power grids, carbon capture and sequestration, nuclear power, joint efforts between their national research labs, as well as renewable energy and energy conservation, the paper said.                                           

On carbon capture and storage, they are expected to agree to work together on the development of a liquid solution for absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2), as well as on environmental assessments of CO2 storage sites, it added.                                           

Obama and Hatoyama are likely to agree that the two nations should cooperate in developing construction technology for making nuclear plants more earthquake resistant.                                           

In addition, they are expected to agree to help other nations introduce nuclear power for civilian uses, the newspaper said.