Clean-energy forum lets U.S., China swap ideas
Feb 18 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Kristi Heim Seattle Times
The U.S. and China can begin cooperating on clean energy by co-funding a
joint research and development center with shared intellectual property,
creating tax-free "special energy zones" within cities to demonstrate new
projects, and training a corps of energy-conservation auditors, participants
in an international forum here said this week.
The U.S. China Clean Energy Forum wrapped up a week of meetings Tuesday,
edging the two sides closer but without producing as many specific plans for
action as some had hoped.
The two have been working together on energy issues for 30 years. Despite
signing 42 agreements and producing 33,000 joint research projects, they're
now "in a worse situation than at the beginning of that relationship when it
comes to energy and the environment," said Seattle businessman Stanley
Barer, the forum's national co-chairman.
While participants talked about growing opportunities for future
cooperation, particularly with $60 billion of the U.S. economic-stimulus
package going toward clean energy, the talks also revealed what a daunting
challenge they face.
Barriers include U.S. export controls, lack of intellectual-property
protection in China and the elephant in the room: coal.
"Not one person in that room likes coal," said Joseph Borich, president of
the Washington State China Relations Council. "Coal is the ugly stepchild
nobody wants to take responsibility for, and it's probably the hardest issue
to grapple with."
China is building one new coal-fired power plant a week, and coal generates
about 70 percent of its energy. The U.S. uses coal for about 23 percent of
its energy, and so-called "clean coal" proposals have proved expensive and
far off.
"With this downturn, we have even an bigger incentive to make investments in
technology solutions to help get us off fossil fuels," said Sen. Maria
Cantwell, D-Wash. "In the near term, we have to reduce CO2 by using more
renewables."
China's annual output of carbon dioxide has surpassed that of the United
States. But on a cumulative basis, the U.S. has contributed close to 30
percent of the total, while China's share is about 8 percent, said Gao
Guangsheng, director general of the Climate Change Department in China's
National Development and Reform Commission.
Considering its huge population and fast-growing economy, "it's naturally
expected that China's contribution to greenhouse-gas emissions will rapidly
increase," Gao said.
The visiting Chinese leaders, trying to assess the new political environment
in Washington, D.C., saw support for cooperation, said Zha Daojiong,
professor of international political economy at Peking University. In the
past, the U.S. emphasis on national security "made spending federal
government resources to assist energy development in China ideologically
unacceptable," Zha said.
The forum received letters of support from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton and Carol Browner, assistant to the president for energy and climate
change. Cantwell spoke to the group twice and sent a letter to President
Obama signed by 14 other senators, urging him to establish a bilateral
agreement with China on clean-energy cooperation.
Jonathan Woetzel, director at McKinsey in China, said the U.S. and China can
sharply reduce their carbon emissions by designing energy-efficient
buildings, moving away from coal and driving electric cars.
But action is needed now. "The longer we wait, the more expensive and
riskier it will be," Woetzel said.
Kristi Heim: 206-464-2718 or
kheim@seattletimes.com
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