Friday
Oct162009
Experts Say China Could Help Produce A Greener World
Friday, October 16, 2009 at 3:00PM
By Julianne LaJeunesse- University of New Mexico
Experts at a Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholar's forum Friday said that if China is given adequate financial and political support, the country could go from being one of the world's biggest polluters, to one that produces more green technology using less environmentally unfriendly energy.
Barbara Finamore, the director of the China program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, made it clear that China's capacity to create green technology with better uses of energy would not be a "Sputnik race," rather every country would benefit from investing in a clean-up of China's energy use.
"This is a race where the opening up of the Chinese domestic market for renewable energy is also a major opportunity for U.S. companies to that are well-positioned... to take advantage of it and understand it," Finamore said.
Finamore, who just returned from China, said in order for China to become more environmentally accepted in the international community, cleaning up their energy consumption must occur provincially.
"What we've been able to do... is work in the pilot project level," Finamore said. "That's where the rubber meets the road, that's where you need to make a difference if you're really going to be able to achieve whatever climate agreements China makes. But we also help to translate them into national policy... in both China and the U.S. and into international policy."
The pilot project level Finamore referred to is a province-based test run of energy standard implementation, which if successful, could change national policy because, according to Finamore, China's pricing bureau "is never going to agree to open up the regulatory system for collecting electricity rates to energy efficiency, unless they're sure these programs already work on the ground."
David Doniger, a senior attorney and policy director also from NRDC said that it's in both the United States and China's interest to agree on a method of halting negative energy consumption that causes global warming via carbon and greenhouse gas emissions, or GHG.
Doniger noted that some American and international concerns regarding China's emissions, are relevant, including tensions regarding proposed methods to control emissions, such as: border adjustments, allowances and leakage.
He added that U.S. Cap-and-Trade legislation like the House's Waxman-Markey and the Senate's Kerry-Boxer bills should not be seen by China as part of a broader U.S. trade agenda, rather as a legitimate method the United States is using to change its relationship with the environment.
Doniger and Finamore were joined by Lynn Price of the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory, a group who in 2007 won a Nobel Peace Prize for their work on climate change.
Experts at a Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholar's forum Friday said that if China is given adequate financial and political support, the country could go from being one of the world's biggest polluters, to one that produces more green technology using less environmentally unfriendly energy.
Barbara Finamore, the director of the China program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, made it clear that China's capacity to create green technology with better uses of energy would not be a "Sputnik race," rather every country would benefit from investing in a clean-up of China's energy use.
"This is a race where the opening up of the Chinese domestic market for renewable energy is also a major opportunity for U.S. companies to that are well-positioned... to take advantage of it and understand it," Finamore said.
Finamore, who just returned from China, said in order for China to become more environmentally accepted in the international community, cleaning up their energy consumption must occur provincially.
"What we've been able to do... is work in the pilot project level," Finamore said. "That's where the rubber meets the road, that's where you need to make a difference if you're really going to be able to achieve whatever climate agreements China makes. But we also help to translate them into national policy... in both China and the U.S. and into international policy."
The pilot project level Finamore referred to is a province-based test run of energy standard implementation, which if successful, could change national policy because, according to Finamore, China's pricing bureau "is never going to agree to open up the regulatory system for collecting electricity rates to energy efficiency, unless they're sure these programs already work on the ground."
David Doniger, a senior attorney and policy director also from NRDC said that it's in both the United States and China's interest to agree on a method of halting negative energy consumption that causes global warming via carbon and greenhouse gas emissions, or GHG.
Doniger noted that some American and international concerns regarding China's emissions, are relevant, including tensions regarding proposed methods to control emissions, such as: border adjustments, allowances and leakage.
He added that U.S. Cap-and-Trade legislation like the House's Waxman-Markey and the Senate's Kerry-Boxer bills should not be seen by China as part of a broader U.S. trade agenda, rather as a legitimate method the United States is using to change its relationship with the environment.
Doniger and Finamore were joined by Lynn Price of the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory, a group who in 2007 won a Nobel Peace Prize for their work on climate change.
Climate Policy Director Says U.S. Must Commit To Copenhagen
With only three weeks until the United Nations’ Copenhagen Climate Change Summit, experts say that an unready United States will have to show the international community that it is still committed to long-term solutions.
“On this front, the U.S. is a bit tardy in terms of delivering its commitments but it hasn’t quite got an incomplete yet,” said Jack Schmidt, International Climate Policy Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, who spoke Monday on a conference call with reporters.
President Barack Obama said that time for negotiations has run out for the U.S. in terms of forging agreements at the Summit. Obama said he favors a Danish proposal, which outlines commitments while postponing deadlines on emission targets, financing and technology transfer. In Singapore yesterday, Obama said he remains committed to reducing U.S. emissions by 80% and endorsed a goal of reducing global emissions by 50% by 2050.
Schmidt said that “prompt-start financing” could reflect U.S. resolve. The financial commitment builds trust between developed and undeveloped countries by providing the means to invest in infrastructure for undeveloped countries that want to use clean energy technology in product and energy creation.
“We need to stay focused on the fact that a number of the key countries across the world, including the major developed countries, over the past year... have brought forward commitments and have signaled that they’re going to take steps,” Schmidt said.