U.S. to help China go green

With its economy expanding at breakneck speed, China has become the world's second-largest consumer of energy after the United States. And it recently passed the United States as the world's largest producer of the greenhouse gasses blamed for global warming.

So the Department of Energy will share tips and technologies for cutting the amount of energy consumed by China's factories, a step that will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Industry consumes about 70 percent of all the energy used in China.

The department will send a small number of experts to China to perform energy audits on industrial facilities and train Chinese counterparts to do the same. The agreement, technically called a memorandum of understanding, also could serve as a conduit for American companies that make energy-efficiency products and want to sell in China.

"We both have a lot to gain from increasing energy efficiency," said Karen Harbert, the Energy Department's assistant secretary for policy and international affairs, who signed the agreement Wednesday in a brief ceremony at the Mark Hopkins Hotel. "Both of our countries have to become better producers and consumers of energy."

Chen Deming, who signed on behalf of China's National Development and Reform Commission, said the agreement will aid both economies.

"We wish that this memorandum of understanding be put into practice very soon, because it's important to our industries," said Deming, the Commission's vice chairman, speaking through an interpreter.

The memorandum follows the Bush administration's approach of seeking voluntary international agreements on global warming issues rather than binding agreements.

Although environmentalists and many foreign officials consider that approach insufficient, both President Bush and the Chinese government have refused to lock themselves into more rigid international agreements that demand specific cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

"This is a collaboration between friends," said John Mizroch, the Energy Department's principal deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency, speaking of the new agreement. "We're not telling them to do anything."

The United States and China already have an agreement to share information on nuclear power plant technology and are working on an agreement for sharing vehicle technology.

The Chinese government last year identified its country's 1,000 biggest industrial consumers of energy and told the managers of those facilities to find ways to cut the amount of power they use.

As part of Wednesday's agreement, China's National Development and Reform Commission will select eight to 12 facilities from that list of 1,000 for energy audits by a team of its own people and U.S. Department of Energy experts.

The Energy Department also will give their Chinese counterparts information on American companies whose products can cut energy use at the facilities being studied.

E-mail David R. Baker at dbaker@sfchronicle.com.