The US-China Clean Energy Research Center.  Yup, you read that right.  The two countries that produce about 42 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions AND two of the countries that refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol are getting together to study how they can curtail carbon emissions.  The joint effort will have a $15 million influx of cash and will compile all the research that has been done and will be done on reducing emissions.  The center will also conduct research into other technologies to help address climate change.

“The U.S. and China are two great nations, and clean energy is one of the great opportunities of our time. Working together we can accomplish more than acting alone,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu.  China and the U.S. have a history of working together on science and technology dating back to President Jimmy Carter and Deng Xiaoping.

China has accused the developed world of creating the carbon emissions problem and insists that treaties like the Kyoto Protocol will ripple their fledgling economy.  At the July 2009 G8 meetings, the developing nations refused to accept any binding targets for lowering emissions.   Yet experts point out that unless the developing world actively works to curtail emissions the global effort to stop global warming will be unsuccessful.   The developing world seems anxious to have the developed world pass on their technologies, however.

The teams of scientists and engineers from the U.S. and China will have as priorities:   building energy efficiency, clean coal including carbon capture and storage, and clean vehicles.  The Center will have one headquarters in each country with the locations yet to be determined.

Of course, the priority of building energy efficiency caught my attention. I’ll be anxious to see what innovations can be produced with the combined brain power of two great nations.

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