Policy and Governance
Testimony by Mikkal Herberg Before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, January 26, 2012
Posted by ChinaFAQs on Jan 26, 2012I first would like to thank the members of the Commission for the opportunity to testify to this important group. It is an honor and a privilege.
I have been asked to speak about China’s approach to securing its energy supplies and implications for the United States. I will discuss China’s approach, whether it is impacting global energy markets and the competitive prospects of American energy companies, how Beijing’s energy security drive is influencing maritime territorial and sea lane disputes in the seas around Asia, and some suggestions on U.S. policy towards the developments.
Testimony by Sarah Forbes Before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, January 26, 2012
Posted by ChinaFAQs on Jan 26, 2012Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the deliberations of this Commission. My name is Sarah Forbes, and I am a Senior Associate for the Climate and Energy Program at the World Resources Institute. I am also manager of the World Resources Institute’s Shale Gas Initiative. The World Resources Institute is a non-profit, non-partisan environmental think tank that goes beyond research to provide practical solutions to the world’s most urgent environmental and development challenges. We work in partnership with scientists, businesses, governments, and non-governmental organizations in more than seventy countries to provide information, tools, and analysis to provide for human well-being.
Michael Levi
Michael A. Levi is the David M. Rubenstein senior fellow for energy and the environment and director of the program on energy security and climate change at the Council on Foreign Relations. He directed CFR’s Independent Task Force on climate change in 2007–2008. His most recent book, On Nuclear Terrorism, was published by Harvard University Press in 2007. He received his PhD in war studies from the University of London (King’s College) and his MA in physics from Princeton University.
Phone: +1.212.434.9495
E-mail: mlevi@cfr.org
China promotes South-South Cooperation in Durban
Posted by Angel Hsu on Jan 10, 2012As part of its green diplomacy strategy and move to promote a positive image in Durban, China for the first time highlighted its own development aid in the context of South-South capacity building and financial assistance with least-developed countries (LDCs) and small-island states (SIDs).
On December 5, Xie Zhenhua, NDRC Vice Minister and head of the Chinese delegation in Durban, announced four major areas of investment through South-South collaboration, including...
Towards a China Environmental Performance Index
Posted by ChinaFAQs on Dec 20, 2011ChinaFAQs expert Angel Hsu and her colleagues from the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy team up with Columbia University, Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning and City University of Hong Kong for this report to help guide effective pollution control and natural resource management.
China At Durban: First Steps Toward a New Climate Agreement
Posted by Deborah Seligsohn on Dec 16, 2011
The UN Climate Conference in Durban, South Africa, concluded over the weekend with a consensus to negotiate an agreement that will include all major emitters of warming gases. The conference agreed to a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol, extended the work of the group for Long-term Cooperative Action, and most significantly established new negotiations under the Durban Platform. Launching these negotiations was hailed as major progress around the world (Bloomberg, The Statesman, Xinhua). For the first time the world’s three major emitters (by total amount of greenhouse gases emitted), China, the United States and India, have agreed to begin negotiations for an international “protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force,” indicating that there will be actions and efforts by all countries. (For the implications of this complex legal wording, see my colleague Jake Werksman’s discussion on WRI Insights).
Chinese experts discuss absolute emissions limits in Durban
Posted by Angel Hsu, Jonathan Smith and Max Song on Dec 6, 2011
The idea of a total cap on energy consumption in China, first suggested last March before the National People’s Congress has reemerged in Durban, and surprisingly there are now suggestions that China might consider some kind of a cap on carbon emissions. This has been suggested apparently as part of domestic policy rather than as a negotiating position, but details are very sketchy.
Propelling the Durban climate talks - China announces willingness to consider legally binding commitments post-2020
Posted by Angel Hsu on Dec 6, 2011
When China launched its first official pavilion at a UN climate conference on Sunday, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat Cristiana Figueres was there alongside China’s NDRC Vice Minister Xie Zhenhua to cut the ribbon. Swarmed by journalists in the standing-room only conference center of the China pavilion in Durban, Figueres applauded China for being a “trend-setter” in global renewable energy, resonating around the world and during the first week of climate negotiations in Durban.
Bridging Gaps in Durban: What Can China do?
Posted by Angel Hsu, Max Song, and Jonathan Smith on Dec 2, 2011Interview with China energy expert Jiang Kejun, Energy Research Institute, NDRC
As the first week of the UN climate negotiations in Durban are underway, one of the most persistent themes has been how to bridge gaps - the divide between the developed and developing countries, many of whom disagree about whether the Kyoto Protocol should be extended into a second commitment period; the hole in climate finance pledges from developed countries; and the ambition or emissions gap between the Copenhagen pledges and the stabilization of global temperatures below a 2 degrees Celsius increase from pre-industrial levels.
China, US, other APEC Leaders Sign Commitment to Slash Tariffs on Green Goods and Services
Posted by ChinaFAQs on Nov 22, 2011
At the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Hawaii last week, Chinese President Hu Jintao joined US President Obama and other APEC leaders in signing a pledge to cut tariffs on an undesignated list of environmental goods and services to 5 percent by 2015. APEC members also pledged to eliminate domestic content requirements on goods and services by 2012. Together, the 21 APEC economies account for 60 percent of global trade in environmental goods and services, and the global market for environmental technologies in 2008 represented $782 billion, with nearly $300 billion in the US, according to a US Commerce Department estimate. A spokesman for one organization representing US manufacturers hailed the commitment as a “huge” outcome. Read the full story at Reuters
Expert Blog Posts
Experts In the News
Experts
- Nathaniel Aden , World Resources Institute
- Edward Cunningham , Boston University
- Erica Downs , The Brookings Institution
- Meredydd Evans , Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- Barbara Finamore , Natural Resources Defense Council
- Sarah Forbes , World Resources Institute
- David Fridley , Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Kelly Sims Gallagher , Tufts University
- Banning Garrett , Atlantic Council
- Stephen Hammer , Columbia University / MIT
- Mikkal Herberg , Pacific Council on International Policy
- Isabel Hilton , Chinadialogue
- Trevor Houser , Peterson Institute for International Economics
- S.T. Hsieh , Tulane University
- Angel Hsu , Yale University
- Robert Kapp , Robert A. Kapp and Associates
- Albert Keidel , Atlantic Council
- David Kline , National Renewable Energy Laboratory
- Bo Kong , Johns Hopkins University
- Michael Levi , Council on Foreign Relations
- Mark Levine , Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
- Joanna Lewis , Georgetown University
- Kenneth Lieberthal , The Brookings Institution
- Denise Mauzerall , Princeton University
- Irving Mintzer , Potomac Energy Fund
- Kevin Mo , Natural Resources Defense Council
- Chris Nielsen , Harvard University
- Rose Niu , World Wildlife Fund
- Stephanie Ohshita , Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Lynn Price , Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- David Pumphrey , Center for Strategic and International Studies
- JingJing Qian , Natural Resources Defense Council
- Rod Quinn , Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- Deborah Seligsohn , World Resources Institute
- Monisha Shah , National Renewable Energy Laboratory
- Bo Shen , Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Edward Steinfeld , Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Kevin Tu , Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Jennifer Turner , Woodrow Wilson Center
- Alex Wang , UC Berkeley Boalt Law School
- Elizabeth Wilson , University of Minnesota
- Zhang Xiaoquan , The Nature Conservancy
- Nan Zhou , Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
Data Sources
BP Statistical Review of World Energy
Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (ORNL)
China Energy Databook (LBNL)
Climate Analysis Indicator Tool (CAIT)
Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR)
Energy Information Administration (EIA)
International Energy Agency (IEA)
The World Bank
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)


