Asia Challenges the U.S. for Green Tech Supremacy - Yahoo! News

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America was caught off guard in the 1950s when the Soviet Union suddenly launched its first Sputnik satellite. It looks like history may repeat itself, but this time the arena is more down to earth. In August, the leaders of Japan, China and Korea will hold a trilateral summit to discuss how they can pool their resources and expertise to develop and commercialize emerging green technologies. Who knows what world-beating products and processes will result from a successful collaboration?

As it is, Japan has already sped ahead of the U.S. in hybrid car technology. China is emerging as a leader in electric cars, solar power and wind power. Korea is not yet known for anything environmentally friendly, but that is about to change. The Korean government is spending $31 billion to fund research into 27 green technologies, including non-silicon based solar cells, biomass fuels, and carbon collection, storage and processing.

What is becoming clear is that the fossil-fuel-fed industrial era is ending, and that the leading power of that age, the U.S., might not be able to maintain its economic dominance. New Energy Finance, a provider of information and analysis on low-carbon technologies, estimates that investment in clean energy in Europe last year reached nearly $50 billion. The figure for North America is a much lower $30 billion.

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