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China and U.S. Partner for Clean Energy R&D

The world’s top two emitters of greenhouse gases will launch a research center to explore low-carbon technologies for green buildings, clean cars and carbon capture and storage.

The world’s top two emitters of greenhouse gases will launch a research center to explore low-carbon technologies for green buildings, clean cars and carbon capture and storage (CCS).

The U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center will kick off with $15 million to serve as a clearinghouse to help researchers from each country as they pursue technologies that can most affordably address climate change.

Combined, China and the U.S. produce about 42 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but neither country signed onto the Kyoto Protocol. Some politicians, NGOs and climate experts worry that if China and other developing nations don't agree to curtail their rapidly growing emissions, it will be much harder to secure an agreement on a post-Kyoto successor treaty in Copenhagen later this year. China has fiercely resisted any mandatory caps on emissions, arguing developed countries should bear the bulk of the burden of reducing emissions, which it says could harm its economy.

And without active participation from developing countries, any emissions reductions made by industrialized nations will be moot, according to U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who announced the research partnership from China.   

"The developed world did make the problem, I admit that," Chu said in the speech to students of China's top science and engineering school, the Wall Street Journal reported. "But the developing world can make it much worse."

Climate legislation is currently working its way through Congress that would, in its current form, set a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, and by 83 percent by 2050. Although some legislators would like the targets weakened, many in the international community -- China included -- see the mid-term goal as too low. China, for instance, has called for developed countries to cut emissions by up to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. Developing countries failed to commit to any binding targets at the G8 meeting last week.

China also believes industrialized countries must help developing countries pay for the transition to a low carbon economy through adaptation funds and the sharing of technology. The U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center builds off previous science and technology cooperation between the two countries, including 12 Department of Energy (DOE) agreements with China that are focused on building and industrial energy efficiency, clean vehicles, renewable energy, nuclear energy and science, and biological and environmental research.

The new research center will pursue the development of efficient batteries, low-cost photovoltaics and commercial scale CCS. Work on the first commercial scale CCS project in the U.S. is now underway again, after being canceled by the previous administration because of skyrocketing costs.

The DOE said Tuesday the site of the $2.4 billion FutureGen project meets environmental requirements, which allows the FutureGen Alliance to move forward with site-specific activities over the next eight to 10 months, such as developing a funding plan and preliminary design. The project, which will receive about $1 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will capture about 90 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions emitted at the Mattoon, Ill., coal-fired power plant by its third year of operation.

Though FutureGen is a U.S.-based project, the country also is reaching out to other nations to pursue CCS technology. The U.S., China and roughly 20 other countries, for example, formally launched the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute in April. The consortium, which became an independent legal entity this month, plans to identify a portfolio of CCS project types representing various technologies and regions to increase worldwide confidence in CCS.

China flag CC licensed by Flickr user christopher.vanbelle. U.S. flag CC licensed by Flickr user scruffdog1231.

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