President Obama Promotes Clean Energy Partnerships with China
Several clean energy and climate change–related agreements resulted from President Barack Obama’s trip to China. The three main areas addressed by the agreements are coal, energy efficiency, and electric vehicles.
The White House provided the following summary of the agreements:
“One topic of particular interest to both leaders is a joint initiative towards clean energy, and President Obama and President Hu introduced a far-reaching package of measures to strengthen cooperation between the United States and China on clean energy. An abridged version of the measures is below, and the full version is available here:
“The U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center will facilitate joint research and development of clean energy technologies by teams of scientists and engineers from the United States and China, as well as serve as a clearinghouse to help researchers in each country.
“The U.S.-China Electric Vehicles Initiative will include joint standards development, demonstration projects in more than a dozen cities, technical roadmapping and public education projects, all aimed at eventual deployment of electric vehicles to reduce oil dependence.
“The U.S. China Energy Efficiency Action Plan will allow the two countries to work together to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, industrial facilities, and consumer appliances, culminating with an annual U.S.-China Energy Efficiency Forum, rotating between the two countries.
“The U.S. China Renewable Energy Partnership will facilitate development of roadmaps for wide-spread renewable energy deployment. A new Advanced Grid Working Group made up of American and Chinese developers and strategists will help plan for grid modernization in both countries, and a new U.S.-China Renewable Energy Forum will be held annually, rotating between the two countries.
“A 21st Century Coal Initiative, for which the two Presidents pledged to promote cooperation on cleaner uses of coal, will include large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration projects.
“A Shale Gas Initiative, will allow the U.S. and China to use experience gained in the United States to assess China’s shale gas potential, promote environmentally-sustainable development of shale gas resources, conduct joint technical studies to accelerate development of shale gas resources in China, and promote shale gas investment in China through the U.S.-China Oil and Gas Industry Forum, study tours, and workshops.
“The U.S. China Energy Cooperation Program will leverage private sector resources for project development work in China across a broad array of clean energy projects, to the benefit of both nations.”
From Nov. 12 through Nov. 18, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu also traveled to India and China as part of the agency’s efforts to seek international clean energy cooperation, according to DOE sources. During the China portion of the visit, Secretary Chu joined with President Barack Obama as part of the official White House delegation.
"China and India will play central roles in the world’s energy future," Secretary Chu said. "By working together we can promote clean energy technologies, helping meet our energy and climate challenges while creating jobs here at home."
Sources: whitehouse.gov, DOE