Steven Chu: U.S.-China Clean Energy Cooperation Is Good for America and Good for the World

Here's a re-post of Energy Secretary Chu's op-ed about the need for a stronger US-China partnership on energy.  As the United States and China are the two largest energy consumers and greenhouse gas emitters, partnership between the two nations is vital.  

At Wash U, some of my friends are working to strengthen the Chinese-American connection through the group WUSICE, or Wash U Students for International Collaboration on the Environment.

Hope you enjoy Secretary Chu's piece!

Chinese President Hu Jintao's arrival in the United States this week will spur a national conversation on a range of bilateral issues. One issue that deserves attention is an emerging success story: our work together to accelerate clean energy research and development.

For more than 30 years, science and technology cooperation has been a cornerstone of U.S.-China relations. From working to advance basic research in physics and chemistry to fighting disease to planning for natural disasters, joint U.S.-China science and technology initiatives have benefited the citizens of both our nations. Now, we have expanded our work to promote the development and deployment of clean energy technologies.

Cooperation with China on clean energy is good for Americans and good for the world. As the world's largest producers of energy, consumers of energy and greenhouse gas emitters, the energy and climate challenge cannot be solved without the United States and China. What we do -- or do not do -- in the coming decades matters to the entire world.

Additionally, by collaborating with China on clean energy research and development, we can bring down the costs of clean energy technologies for families and businesses. We can promote export opportunities for American companies, creating new jobs here at home. And we can help ensure that the United States leads in clean energy innovation, which is critical to our prosperity in the 21st century.

Both the United States and China recognize that we can make more progress by working together than by working alone. Each country brings complementary strengths to the table. The United States remains the leader in the most innovative technologies, with our world-leading research universities and national laboratories, pioneering businesses and entrepreneurs, and well-developed financial and legal infrastructure. China has experience and expertise with rapid, large-scale deployment of technologies. As the world's fastest and largest growing energy market, China can serve as an important global testing ground for new technologies.

Through strong collaboration, we can develop and deploy new clean energy technologies that promote economic prosperity while reducing carbon pollution. That is why, in November 2009, President Obama and President Hu launched an ambitious program of cooperation that covers energy efficiency, renewable energy, cleaner uses of coal, electric vehicles, shale gas and more.

This week, I will be meeting with my Chinese colleagues to advance progress on a flagship research initiative: the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center. The research center was established to facilitate joint research and development by teams of scientists and engineers from the U.S. and China and to serve as a clearinghouse to help researchers in each country. It focuses on the high-priority research areas of building efficiency, electric vehicles and carbon capture and sequestration. In addition to the U.S. and Chinese governments, it includes participation from academic institutions and the private sector. A central feature of the program is that intellectual property developed jointly will be shared between our countries.

One of the most important steps to promote innovation is to respect and protect intellectual property rights. Inventors need to know their hard work will be rewarded. In recent years, China has made strides to improve its intellectual property system, but more must be done. The United States continues to work with Chinese authorities to ensure rules and regulations are enforced. We also continue to work to ensure that China's innovation policies provide a fair and level playing field for American companies doing business in China.

While the United States is competing for leadership in energy innovation, we have much to gain by cooperating with China. Together, we can develop and test new technologies, accelerate their deployment, and bring down their costs. We can boost exports and create new jobs. We can enhance energy security and cut pollution. And we can build a sustainable energy future for the U.S., for China and for the world.

Steven Chu's Message to the Class of 2010: "Do something that matters. Help save the world"

A week ago, I was lucky enough to attend the Washington University 2010 Commencement Ceremony. While it was great to see all of my graduating senior friends one last time, the highlight for me was listening to Secretary of Energy Steven Chu's commencement address.

I had high hopes for this speech, and Secretary Chu did not disappoint. Chu, a Nobel Laurette for his work with Bell Labs in 1997, was funny, personable, and inspiring. He used his address to challenge the Wash U graduates to do something meaningful with their lives and to shape their own destiny. I highly recommend reading the full text of Chu's speech or watching the video of his address.

Many of my friends in the Washington University Climate Justice Alliance felt that Chu might use his speech to tout the wonders of "c!*@n" coal, but Chu made no mention of coal whatsoever. Instead, Chu used his speech to educate his audience about the dangers of climate change, and why chose to embark on a "downward spiral from professor to administrator to bureaucrat" over the past six years. Chu explains that, while he had never been much of an activist, the mounting scientific evidence of climate change was alarming enough that he felt compelled to get involved.

Secretary Chu makes two key predictions about the future:

1) In the coming decades, the price of oil will be higher, driven by the laws of supply and demand.

2) Climate change and its risks will become so starkly apparent that we will live in a carbon constrained world.

He then goes on to explain that America needs "nothing less than a second industrial revolution" to confront its environmental and energy challenges in the 21st century. Chu feels that we have an opportunity to lead the world in this clean energy revolution, and he feels that "the development of successful green energy technologies will create personal wealth, new jobs, and will be a cornerstone of America's future economic prosperity." However, Chu warns that if we do not develop our clean energy manufacturing capabilities, we will soon be "importing the new energy technologies developed by Europe and Asia."

Chu claims that President Obama is fully committed to comprehensive energy and climate legislation (although he's been very slow to make the connection between the gulf spill and a climate bill). Chu feels that this legislation must allow America's innovators and entrepreneurs to work with the federal government to completely transform how our society used and produces energy. However, Chu emphasizes that the Department of Energy and the Obama Administration cannot create this policy singlehandedly. As Chu say, "Ultimately, it is the American people that must demand that their elected representatives pass laws that will guide our country to the future."

And who is going to step up and create the social change necessary to pass such ambitious legislation? Well, why not us? Why not the Millenial Generation? Secretary Chu directly challenged us to take on this task and lead the way to a more sustainable future.

"I look to you to engage America to solve the energy and climate problem. It will be your idealism that can give our elected officials the ammunition to overcome the resistance of those who are easily frightened of the future and want to cling to the status quo. It will be your intellectual courage and creativity that will find the technical and policy solutions we need."

Our generation is already changing the global ethic. We are amazingly connected through our social networking tools and have incredible activist power through facebook, twitter, and SMS. We are creating a new, post-material attitude towards our social and economic systems, and are already demanding transparency and accountability from both businesses and our elected leaders. We mobilized and elected Obama; he would not be in office if not for our support. We are already accomplishing great things.

There is clearly more to do. Climate change poses a huge challenge, perhaps the most complex problem our civilization has ever faced. Yet the climate crisis also presents us with an incredible opportunity: our generation can completely reshape society and make it truly sustainable.

I will close this post with Secretary Chu's closing remarks, much of which is courtesy of Carl Sagan:

"In my final comments, I want to leave you with an image captured by Voyager 1 in 1990. As the spacecraft began to leave our Solar System, the astronomer, Carl Sagan, convinced the NASA engineers to turn Voyager for one last, homeward look. In this picture, Earth appears as a pale blue dot of light, one-tenth of the area of a single pixel and embedded in a rainbow of light scattered from the camera lens.

Here is a condensed version of what Sagan wrote about this picture:
'Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives ... Every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals ... every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

'The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena … Our posturing, our imagined self-importance … are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck … in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

'The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

'It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.'

To this narrative, I add a Native American saying about how we should care for our planet, this pale blue dot of light: 'Treat the earth well: It was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children.' My generation is in danger of breaking this sacred trust. Hold us accountable… Do something that matters. Help save the world"

Let's take Secretary Chu's words to heart. It's time for our generation to reshape the world. Earth is our one home, and we have a responsibility to not leave an inhospitable planet to future generations.

Can we have a sustainable future? Yes, but only if we choose to travel that path. Our future is whatever we decide it to be.