Todd Stern: No tradeoff between economy and environment - China must do both
U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern delivered a speech on Wednesday (June 3) on the relationship of China and the U.S. and what both must do together as we head into a crucial period of bilateral and multilateral meetings on climate change.
Click here for video of speech.
Click here for full transcript of speech.
The basic message of Stern’s speech was this: “Thus, the impression that China refuses to take action is both inaccurate and unfair. Yet China can and will need to do much more if we are to have any hope of containing climate change.”
Stern was clear to reassure China that his call for China to take action was not an underhanded tactic of trying to suppress China’s economic development:
What China can do – and many in Chinese leadership clearly recognize this – is not to stop growing, but to grow smarter. The only way China will meet its development needs in the long run is to a) rebalance its economy away from polluting industry towards job-creating services, b) increase the efficiency with which industry and buildings consume energy and c) find alternatives to coal or ways to use it cleanly. In short, it is not a tradeoff between economic growth and environmental protection. China must do both.
The United States for it own part has its work cut out, concluded Stern:
So we need to press forward with our own efforts to enact a broad-based, mandatory program to drive the clean-energy transition and limit our emissions. And that includes promptly enacting strong legislation to cap carbon pollution.
We need to listen and not just lecture.
We need to make clear that we support China’s growth and development and have no desire to constrain it through climate change commitments or in any other way.
We need to acknowledge the impressive steps the Chinese have already taken to promote low-carbon development and the new ones that will be coming off drawing boards soon.
We need to set our minds to joining with China in an active, real partnership, on the principle of mutual benefit.
And we need to recognize that if we aren’t careful, we may spend the next few years pushing China to do more, but will then spend all the years after that chasing them, as they hurtle profitably down the road to the low-carbon transformation.
In the Q&A, some interesting tidbits emerged:
- When asked what types of collaboration he thought the Chinese was interested in engaging, Stern identified building efficiency, electric vehicles, and (”depending on who you talk to”) carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). Its interesting that he put a qualifier on CCS (I have heard third-hard news that some camps in China are less enthused with CCS because it only addresses carbon emissions and not other pollutants such as SO2 or particulates; better to deploy solutions that can tackle all at the same time, goes the thinking), but Stern went on to express his personal view that CCS is a vital area of research.
- He views China’s calls for developed countries to cut emissions by 40 percent by 2020 as rhetoric and takes it as seriously (i.e. not very seriously) as China (and Group 77’s) call for developed countries to contribute 0.5 to 1% of their GDP to a multilateral fund. Stern says the U.S. is “full on board” with the concept of financial and technical assistance, but “not at the level (of funding) they are talking about.”
Next post: An exclusive interview with Todd Stern.
Other China buzz
This week, Stern heads a delegation to Beijing with White House Science Policy Adviser John Holdren and Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs at the Department of Energy David Sandalow to “deepen the dialogue” with their Chinese counterparts with a longer term goal of creating a bilateral agreement on clean energy cooperation. We’ll see what emerges from these discussion, thought we probably should not expect much at this point. In the backdrop of these meetings, however, some news outlets are reporting China is showing a new willingness to engage. According to Reuters:
…China is also looking to take some of the initiative in climate change politics by setting its own the path to lower greenhouse gas emissions and eventual outright reductions.
The nation’s next five-year development plan, starting from 2011, will focus on creating a “low-carbon economy” by reducing coal use and encouraging clean energy, said Wang Yi, an expert on climate change at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
“In the past, China has been reactive in policy-making, responding when the West has put forward its demands,” said Wang, chief author of a recent 415-page study laying out a blueprint for a low-carbon economy.
“Now instead of others criticising us, we’re saying, ‘Why don’t we take the initiative by proposing our own policy goals?’”
China Daily is more dramatic, reporting that “China will put in place carbon dioxide emissions targets for its economic and social development programs, the central government has promised.” I would not put much stock into this report, which is not very well written and really does not elaborate on this statement in the rest of the article. What it likely refers to are sector specific energy efficiency standards, not hard carbon emission caps. But the article does describe some discussions to enhance accountability within its ranks:
[T]he State Council also promised to name and shame provincial governments that fail to meet their 2008 targets of energy conservation and emission control. According to an accountability system unveiled in 2007, leading provincial officials who fail to meet the targets would not be promoted in future.
