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Jump-starting negotiations: China and the U.S. discuss clean energy cooperation

By Wu Chong and Lin Shujuan

With a U.S.-China clean energy agreement likely sometime this fall, most experts agree it will include elements of joint research in clean coal technology, particularly in carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). But they hold mixed opinions about whether the agreement will facilitate U.S.-China energy cooperation or smooth the way for global climate talks taking place in Copenhagen in December.

	Richland: An overview of the Energy and Environment Laboratory at the Richland, Wash.-based Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). .

“We’ve proposed cooperation in three areas, namely clean coal technology, renewable energy and nuclear energy,” says Jiang Kejun, a director with the Energy Research Institute of China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). “Of them, cooperation in clean coal technology will be the main focus.”

Jiang leads a Chinese working group that-- together with its U.S. counterpart-- will identify priorities for the new clean energy treaty.

“Cooperation in the research and development of carbon capture and storage technology will be one of the main issues,” he says, explaining that both countries have a strong interest in this field.

That interest is echoed by Mike Davis, associate laboratory director for Energy and Environment at the Richland, Wash.-based Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), which is extensively involved in many national-level energy projects.

“From the lab point of view,” Davis says, “we need the agreement, but what we need more is to develop new products and technologies to achieve the agreement.”

One of those technologies is an integrated approach to co-capturing sulfur oxide, nitrogen and carbon dioxide from existing plants, Davis says.

Nearly 50 percent of U.S. electricity and 75 percent of China’s electricity is produced from coal, which a recent PNNL action plan calls “essential to the growth and stability of these countries.” According to that same plan, coal “will take decades and significant technological breakthroughs to replace.”

This, perhaps, is the reason the Chinese and American working groups are focusing so heavily on CCS technology, says Jiang.

CCS technology-- along with building efficiency and green transportation-- will be the focus of two energy research centers that China and the U.S. have agreed to jointly build and operate. The two sides say they will each contribute $15 million to the centers, following a July visit to China by the U.S. Secretaries of Commerce and Energy, Gary Locke and Steven Chu.

	A facility of GreenGen project in Tianjin. .

This is just the latest chaper in the two countries’ cooperation in CCS technology development.

In 2005, China’s largest coal-fueled power generating company joined the FutureGen project, a cooperative effort between industry and the U.S. Department of Energy to create the world’s first zero-emissions coal plant.

However, even before funding for the more than U.S. $1 billion-project ran aground in early 2008, China had announced the creation of GreenGen, a near zero-emissions coal plant based in Tianjin, China. Investors in the plant-- set to be fully operational by 2011-- include American company Peabody Energy.

Both GreenGen and FutureGen are trying to develop and integrate CCS and Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) technologies in order to produce clean energy and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

But according to Jiang, technological cooperation between the two projects remains limited. FutureGen has higher technological goals than GreenGen, while the U.S. still has a comparative advantage in terms of scientific research capacity.

“We hope the new energy pact between the two countries will make it possible for some research efforts stalled by the slow progress of FutureGen to move to GreenGen,” Jiang says.

If cooperation between the U.S. and China is successful, he adds, it will serve as a leading example for other projects. Davis agrees.

“By creating new products and technologies we jointly own, we can start cooperation [in technology transfer],” he says.

But not everyone is optimistic about the new energy treaty, particularly when it comes to its role in impacting global climate talks.

Wang Yi, deputy director-general of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Policy and Management, says he doubts there will be major breakthroughs in the new U.S.-China energy pact unless the U.S. passes the Waxman-Markey Clean Energy Bill.

“The U.S.’s current legislation forbids any technology transfer related to climate change to developing countries,” says Wang. “Unless the U.S. passes its new energy bill and lifts such bans, there won’t be any new progress for cooperation between the U.S. and China.”

In addition to introducing a federal cap-and-trade program, the Waxman-Markey Clean Energy Bill would provide allowances for international clean technology transfer.

This sits well with Amory Lovins, chief scientist and chairman of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit energy policy research group.

“As long as the U.S. remains almost the only industrial country that doesn’t put a price on its carbon, we can’t expect we’ll have an influence on other countries,” he says.

	A computer-generated outline of GreenGen, a Tianjin-based zero-emission coal plant. .

According to Lovins, the U.S.-China treaty will only achieve a breakthrough if it asserts that climate protection will not compromise economic growth. He suggests both countries should prioritize efficient use of energy rather than expensive and currently unavailable CCS technology.

“Another neglected topic is the use of the modern natural gas grid,” he says. “China is replacing coal with gas, and the [U.S.] has the best gas skill in the world…Using pipelines to deliver fuel will free up China’s well capacity and improve China’s economy.”

But Melinda Kimble, a senior vice president of the United Nations Foundation, warns that combining energy and environmental issues will only hinder the agreement. She also doubts the agreement will have much effect on international climate talks.

“Not everyone is interested in an agreement between China and the U.S.,” says Kimble, who has experience with international climate negotiations, including the Kyoto talks.

“The sore point is whether China is willing to control its economic growth by adopting efficient and clean energy. Otherwise, it’s difficult to have the U.S. join the commitment,” she says.

But Kimble expects that a bilateral pact may exert a certain influence when it comes time for the U.S. Congress to ratify the global treaty.

Jiang from the NDRC says he hopes the influence of such an agreement will be even greater.

“The new energy treaty will form a new cooperation mechanism between the two countries, leading the international world to reach a new treaty in Copenhagen.”

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