东亚峰会于昨日闭幕时达成协议，将努力减少东亚对进口石油和天然气的依赖。预计此举将促进东南亚日益扩张的生物燃料产业的发展。

Efforts to cut east Asia´s reliance on oil and gas imports agreed at the close of yesterday´s regional summit look set to provide a boost to south-east Asia´s expanding biofuels industry.

与会的16国领导人一致同意，东亚地区应开发水电和核电，以替代石油。但与会官员表示，生物燃料可能会最先受到关注。

Leaders at the 16-nation east Asian summit agreed the region should explore the use of hydropower and nuclear power as alternatives to oil but officials said biofuels would likely attract the most immediate attention.

推动替代能源开发和更好地节能，是此次峰会最引人注目的成果。在会谈期间，日本还提议筹措资金，就构建东亚自由贸易区进行可行性研究。参与此次峰会的国家包括东盟(ASEAN)10国及中国、日本、韩国、印度、澳大利亚和新西兰。

The moves towards alternativesupplies and better conservation provided the most noteworthy outcome of the summit, which embraced the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations and included China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand. During the talks, Japan also proposed financing a feasibility study on turning the group, which has focused on political consultations, into a free trade area.

菲律宾能源部长拉斐尔o洛提拉(Raphael Lotilla)表示，东亚国家已同意对发动机和机动车使用的生物燃料采用统一标准，推进生物燃料和生物燃料汽车的自由贸易。

Raphael Lotilla, the Philippines´ energy secretary, said the east Asian countries had agreed to adopt common standards on biofuels used in engines and motor vehicles and to promote freer trade in biofuels and the vehicles that use them.

他表示："第一步是制定国家标准。日本等不生产生物燃料的其它国家，会需要一些时间来提出自己的标准。"

"The first step is to come up with national standards. Other countries such as Japan don´t produce biofuels and would like some time to come up with their own standards," he said.

该能源协议措辞宽泛，没有制定具体目标。这与欧盟(EU)上周公布的能源提案不同。欧盟的目标是要将温室气体排放削减20%。

The energy agreement was broadly worded and set no concrete targets, in contrast to the European Union´s energy proposals unveiled last week, which aimed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 per cent.

根据东盟的提案，削减既可使用汽油或柴油也可使用生物燃料的汽车的关税，将纳入该集团2010年以后的贸易自由化协定中。

Under the Asean proposals, reduced tariffs on vehicles that can run on biofuels as well as petrol or diesel will be included in the group´s trade liberalisation pact from 2010.

对生物燃料兴趣的日益增长，也反映在了中国和菲律宾即将签署的双边协议之中。在中国国务院总理温家宝本周访问菲律宾期间，两国计划就生物乙醇的生产签署双边协议。

Growing interest in biofuels is reflected in plans by China and the Philippines to sign bilateral agreements on bio-ethanol production during this week´s state visit by Wen Jiabao, the Chinese prime minister.

中国最大的农业投资集团北大荒集团(Beidahuang Group)计划在菲律宾北部的吕宋岛设立一家工厂，用糖和其它农作物生产乙醇。 The Beidahuang Group, China´s biggest agricultural investor, plans to set up a plant on the northern Philippines island of Luzon to produce ethanol from sugar and other crops.

英国外交部(Foreign Office)委托撰写的一份报告显示，英国要想在科技开发的全球竞赛中不落后太远，就必须立即扩大与亚洲快速成长的"创新热点地区"的协作。

Britain must urgently scale up its collaboration with Asia´s fast-growing "innovation hotspots" if it is not to be left far behind in the global race to exploit science and technology, according to a report commissioned by the Foreign Office.

伦敦智囊机构Demos今日将在一个关于科学、创新和全球化的国际会议上公布这项名为《创意版图》(Atlas of Ideas)的研究报告。

Demos, the London-based think-tank, will launch the Atlas of Ideas study today at an international conference on science, innovation and globalisation.

报告指出，英国必须避免犯两大错误。"第一，英国必须清醒认识到中国和印度的进步，不能回应过小、过迟。第二，英国必须努力防止全球退回到科技民族主义，而要努力提倡全球共赴创新。"

Britain must avoid making two big mistakes, it says. "First, [it] must wake up to what is unfolding in China and India and not respond with too little too late. Second, it must work to prevent a global retreat into techno-nationalism and instead evangelise for a cosmopolitan approach to innovation."

Demos称，由詹姆斯o威尔斯顿(James Wilsdon)和查尔斯·利德比特(Charles Leadbeater)牵头的这项研究，是迄今为止对中国、印度、韩国兴起的创新活动最全面的评估。研究对英国应如何反应提出了多条建议。
According to Demos, the study, led by James Wilsdon and Charles Leadbeater, is the most comprehensive assessment so far of emerging innovation in China, India and South Korea. It makes several recommendations for Britain´s response.

研究指出，英国首先应该考虑，在如今中印创新势头仍在发展之时就"发起大规模协作"，而不要等到为时已晚的10年之后。核心措施应该是拿出1亿英镑全球研发合作资金，资助与目标国家进行的特定主题项目，如中国的清洁能源项目或印度的气候科学项目。

Top priority is for Britain to "unleash mass collaboration" now while Chinese and Indian innovation is still developing, rather than in 10 years´ time when it will be too late, it says. The centrepiece should be a ￡100m global research and development collaboration to help fund programmes with target countries on particular themes, such as clean energy in China or climate science in India.

英国的国家科学院--英国皇家学会(Royal Society)已经在为一个交换奖学金方案制定计划。这份报告建议，应该设立足够的这类"达尔文奖学金"(Darwin fellowships)，用来每年从亚洲为英国引入200名年轻、事业处于中间阶段的研究人员。

The Royal Society, Britain´s National Academy of Sciences, is already developing plans for an exchange scholarship scheme. The report suggests there should be enough of these "Darwin fellowships" to bring 200 young and mid-career researchers a year from Asia to Britain.

赴英亚洲留学生的增长让人印象颇深。2005年，英国的大学里有7万多韩国、印度和中国学生；10年之前，相应的数字才刚刚超过1.2万。不过，报告指出，这项研究访问的几名亚洲留学生"抱怨英国大学把留学生当成摇钱树，提供的是批量生产的学位课程。这种令人沮丧的经历将很快损害英国高等教育在海外的声誉。"

The growth in Asian students coming to Britain has been impressive. In 2005 there were more than 70,000 students from South Korea, India and China at UK universities; 10 years ago the comparable figure was just over 12,000. But several Asian students interviewed for the study "complained of British universities treating foreign students as cash cows for mass-produced degree courses", the report says. "Dispiriting experiences like this will quickly damage the reputation of UK higher education abroad."