Forging a new partnership between the United States and China can help address climate change, but only if regulatory and market shortcomings can be overcome.

A new alignment on energy and the environment between China and the United States sounds like a formula capable of delivering real solutions on climate-change issues. China’s abundant scientific research-and-development resources and manufacturing capacity not only help carbon sink testing and the scaling up of renewable energies become more feasible, but also less costly.

However, the potential cost effectiveness of reducing emissions in China could prove more of a liability than a benefit where the environment is concerned. Systemic regulatory and market shortcomings demonstrate the difficulty of managing and preventing environmental degradation and guaranteeing public health in a developing country context. One example is in the power sector, where in some cases emissions performance has not matched infrastructure upgrades as expected because the use of low-grade coal has gone unmonitored. Does the new US administration have the will to face the prospect that a low-cost approach might be inimical to a low-carbon strategy? Will they ensure careful planning and responsible oversight?

The recent release of a joint Asia Society and Pew Center on Global Climate Change report (see “Road to rapprochement” by Banning Garrett and Jonathan Adams), followed by secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s trip to China, generated considerable US interest in enhancing US-China coordination on energy and the environment.

Grand bilateral collaboration undoubtedly can help reduce the rate of growth of emissions in both countries, and bring much needed efficiency improvements to China’s outdated power production and transmission infrastructure. And a powerful US-China nexus may help break post-Kyoto gridlock at Copenhagen in December. However, a partnership between the world’s largest carbon dioxide emitters is not the “holy grail” for preventing further environmental degradation. Though full of promise, the “China advantage” comes with its own pitfalls. …..click here to read more

New York Mayor Bloomberg harnessed the green power of Earth Day to unveil a plan that would require NYC buildings - responsible for 80% of the city’s emissions - to undergo regular energy audits and retrofits, as needed, in order to become more energy efficient.

The announcement was made just a couple weeks after Bloomberg and President Clinton announced a $20 million efficiency overhaul of the Empire State Building, and the Mayor called for extensive urban wind power deployment. Two years ago, the Mayor launched PlaNYC, an ambitious, multi-sector policy initiative aimed at bringing greater sustainability to NYC, on Earth Day.

Plan to Include Energy Code, Require Energy Audits & Efficiency Upgrades

Under the new plan, each of the 22,000 buildings in the city with more than 50,000 square feet of floor space would be required to conduct energy audits every 10 years, say city officials. The package also includes a first ever energy code for New York, that would require equipment upgrades, in all of the city’s one million structures, to comply with the latest standards for energy efficiency. The current state code does not prohibit buildings from using older, less efficient equipment in retrofits.

The laws and initiatives in the works, set to take effect by 2013, aim to in reduce the city’s total carbon-dioxide emissions by around 3 million tons a year, helping New York meet the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative target of 10% reduction in emissions from the power sector by 2018. …..click here to read more

Annual CO2 Emissions

Shanghai, often recognized for its free-market tendencies and environmental leadership, is introducing China’s first municipal trading mechanism as a means to curb pollution.

Last Friday, in advance of a major carbon trade industry event taking place in Beijing this week, word began surfacing in the Chinese media that Shanghai plans to pilot an emissions trading scheme that will involve more than 300 companies’ trading “pollution discharge rights.”

The news comes nine months after the launch of China’s first energy and environment exchanges. That announcement – on the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympic games – coincided with building efforts by leaders in China’s premier cities to promote, at least on a rhetoric level, municipal level policies aimed at reigning in growing energy demand.

Shanghai is doing more than just talking the talk, though. …..click here to read more