United States-China Cooperation

President Hu Jintao concluded his visit to the United States Friday, after meeting with President Obama and other top government and business leaders in Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Among the many issues on the agenda for these two leaders, strengthening cooperation on climate change and clean energy is an area where real progress is being made.

While champagne glasses were clinking at the White House state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao, senior officials, academic experts and industry leaders from China and the United States were discussing clean energy cooperation at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel near the Jefferson Memorial. In two days of sessions at the U.S.-China Strategic Forum on Clean Energy Cooperation hosted by The Brookings Institution and the China Institute for Innovation & Development Strategy, participants reported on progress, announced business deals, and discussed next steps.

China and the U.S. issued a joint statement Wednesday, January 19, covering the range of issues discussed during President Hu Jintao’s state visit to Washington this week. The White House also posted a fact sheet summarizing Hu and Obama’s agreement to enhance cooperation on climate change, clean energy, and the environment. The Department of Energy provides further detail on these Clean Energy Cooperation Announcements.

On January 18, at a ceremony at the US-China Strategic Forum on Clean Energy Cooperation in Washington, D.C., U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu and China’s Energy Minister Zhang Guogao and Science and Technology Minister Wan Gang signed an agreement to advance the US-China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC).

The United States and China both have a lot to gain from collaborating on clean energy, and President Hu’s visit is a symbol of China’s commitment to this partnership.

As the two largest cumulative greenhouse gas emitters, both countries are looking for ways to transition to cleaner energy while advancing their private sectors. China is moving quickly on renewable energy, clean technology, and energy efficiency but still faces the energy challenges of a rapidly industrializing country, and shares the United States’ heavy reliance on coal for energy.

Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu and representatives from the Chinese government, including Minister Wan Gang and Minister Zhang Guobao, signed a joint work plan to expand US-China cooperation on the Clean Energy Research Center (CERC) that was established in November 2009. The World Resources Institute is a member of the CERC, focused on advanced coal and carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS).

Following is a statement by Sarah Forbes, senior associate and lead for CCS, the World Resources Institute:

On January 18, 2011, the Department of Energy released a report detailing the substantial progress made to date on a number of clean energy initiatives between China and the United States.

To download the report, click here

China and the U.S. at the Summit

• Fact Sheet: The U.S. and China at the Summit: Climate & Energy Developments in China and U.S.-China Collaboration
  Background on US-China climate relations, what China has accomplished and the prospects ahead for clean energy and climate progress.
• Ask the ChinaFAQs Experts: “What Outcomes Do You Hope to See From the Hu Jintao-Obama Summit?”
  We asked members of our ChinaFAQs Expert Network what they would like to see in terms of outcomes from the summit. Read their responses here.

As Chinese President Hu Jintao and President Obama prepare to meet in Washington next week, economic and security issues have been receiving the most attention in recent press. However, the visit also presents an opportunity to discuss climate and energy issues, which have long represented areas for cooperation between the two nations, even amid tensions over other issues. We asked several experts from the ChinaFAQs network to provide their views on what they would like to see result from this summit.