China & the U.S.: Big Emitters Take Significant Steps to Scale Renewable Energy

Yesterday was a big day for renewable energy and climate change, as the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases paved the path of cooperation with regard to scaling renewable power. U.S. President Obama and the People’s Republic of China President Hu released a joint statement on a variety of economic, social, and political issues.

In the section dedicated to climate change, President Obama declared that,

“As the two largest consumers and producers of energy, there can be no solution to this challenge without the efforts of both China and the United States.”

With the international climate change negotiations set to begin in Copenhagen in less than a month, leadership and a stronger level of cooperation from the two countries is needed to achieve a substantive outcome on carbon emissions. In fact, Obama declared that both China and the U.S. want Copenhagen to result in “an accord that covers all of the issues in the negotiations, and one that has immediate operational effect.” This week, we’ll take a look at the details of the U.S.-China cooperation on clean energy. Check in next week for a more detailed analysis on why some of these steps are important and what might be missing from the equation.

The joint press release detailed the outcomes of the talks as follows:

(1) Copenhagen Should Not Be a Wasted Opportunity. Dedicated to working together against climate change, the two parties believe that “an agreed outcome at Copenhagen should, based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, include emission reduction targets of developed countries and nationally appropriate mitigation actions of developing countries.”

(2)  Scaling Renewable Energy is a Priority. The newly-adopted “U.S.-China Energy Effiiciency Action Plan” will help the two countries “work together to achieve cost-effective energy efficiency improvements in industry, buildings and consumer products through technical cooperation, demonstration and policy exchanges…the two Presidents underscored the enormous opportunities to create jobs and enhance economic growth through energy savings.” In addition, the countries launched the U.S. China Renewable Energy Partnership, with the goal of achieving rapid and wide-scale deployment of renewable energy technologies and a modern electric power grid through design and policy cooperation.

(3)  Creation of a U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center. Coming in at a cost of $150 million over five years, the two countries will evenly split the cost and construct one Center in each country. With the hopes of encouraging joint research and development on clean energy technologies, the Center’s priority areas of focus will be energy efficiency in buildings, clean coal, and clean (electric and other fuel) vehicles.

(a) Energy Efficiency. With the speed at which Chinese cities are growing, and that fact that U.S. buildings account for 40 percent of energy use, it is imperative that building construction and remodeling in both countries be done with energy efficiency as a top priority.

(b) Clean Coal. The U.S. and China have a heavy interest in improving coal efficiency as both nations rely on coal as the biggest source for electric base-load power. The two countries “agreed to promote cooperation on large-scale carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) demonstration projects and to begin work immediately on the development, deployment, diffusion, and transfer of CCS technology. The two sides welcomed recent agreements between Chinese and U.S. companies, universities, and research institutions to cooperate on CCS and more efficient coal technologies.

(c)  Launch of a U.S.-China Electric Vehicles Initiative. And with a rising car culture in China and a need to revamp automobile infrastructure in the U.S., both countries have a concrete interest in developing a clean vehicle industry. With the goal of bringing millions of electric vehicles to both countries, the program calls for “joint demonstration projects in more than a dozen cities, along with work to develop common technical standards to facilitate rapid scale-up of the industry.”