Building Relations to Build a Better World: China and the U.S. Work Together to Tackle Environmental Concerns

Plans were announced today that will bring the United States and China together in order to fight the issue of global climate change. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Chinese Minister of Science Wan Gang, and Administrator of National Energy Administration Zhang Guo Bao announced plans to develop a U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center, which will facilitate cooperative research and development of clean energy systems.

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The center, which will have headquarters in each country will initially focus on priority topics such as building energy efficiency, clean coal carbon capture and storage (CCS) and clean vehicles. Cooperation between the two countries can help to drive down the cost of clean energy and carbon capture and storage technologies needed to avoid the worst consequences of climate change with greater rapidity.

“The U.S. and China are two great nations, and clean energy is one of the great opportunities of our time,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “Working together, we can accomplish more than acting alone.”

Secretary Chu is right. The issue is not American climate change. It is not Chinese or even Asian climate change. The issue at hand is global climate change. The time has come for nations around the world to join hands in order to curb pollutants and protect the world we all share. And with China taking great strides toward renewable, sustainable infrastructures, they will make a great partner in our march forward.

Hopefully this cooperation doesn’t end here. Hopefully the joint efforts of two nations can spread to the joint efforts of three and four and five and on. And while much is yet to be determined concerning the cooperative research plans, including the locations of the two headquarters (one in each country), each country has pledged an equal amount of money for the development of the program and steps are being taken to address this global concern. Initial operations are hoped to be launched by the end of the year.

Photo Credit: emms76 via flickr under Creative Commons License

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