[JURIST] The United States and five Asia-Pacific countries Thursday formally announced an agreement to fight global warming, but critics attacked the voluntary deal [Australian Greens press release] for its lack of emissions targets and claimed it undermined existing treaties. The Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate - which includes the US, China, India, South Korea, Australia, and now Japan - seeks new technology to cut greenhouse gases without inhibiting economic growth and is said to go beyond the Kyoto Protocol [Wikipedia backgrounder; JURIST news archive], which the US and Australia have so far refused to ratify, by including the countries which emit more than 40% of the world's greenhouse gases. Ministers from the six countries will attend an inaugural meeting in November 2005 in the Adelaide, Australian. Reuters has more.