The Initiative for U.S.-China Cooperation on Energy and Climate, a partnership between the Asia Society Center on U.S.-China Relations and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, aims to catalyze U.S.-China cooperation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting from energy use. The first report of the Initiative, Common Challenge, Collaborative Response: A Roadmap for U.S.-China Cooperation on Energy and Climate Change, presents both a vision and a concrete roadmap for this new collaboration.

With input from scores of experts, stakeholders, and policymakers from the sciences, business, civil society, and politics in China and the U.S., this January 2009 report explicates both a rationale and an outline for beginning a more comprehensive program of U.S.-China collaboration on energy and climate change. It calls for initial engagement at a presidential summit, but also outlines some of the critical project areas that should be jointly explored through practical collaboration by government officials as well as the private sector. These priority areas include:

• Deploying low-emissions coal technologies
• Improving energy efficiency and conservation
• Developing an advanced electric grid
• Promoting renewable energy
• Quantifying emissions and financing low-carbon technologies

The co-chairs for the report project were Steven Chu, Director, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Professor of Physics and Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Berkeley (until nominated by President-Elect Obama to be Secretary of Energy) and John Thornton, Chairman, The Brookings Institution; Professor, Tsinghua University; and Board Member, Asia Society.

A Partnership Between:

Asia Society Center on U.S.-China Relations

Orville Schell
Arthur Ross Director
Banning Garrett
Director, Initiative for U.S.-China Cooperation on Energy and Climate
Joanna Lewis
Initiative Research Director
Assistant Professor, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service
Jonathan Adams
Initiative Assistant Director

and

Pew Center on Global Climate Change

Eileen Claussen
President
Elliot Diringer
Vice President, International Strategies

Project Co-Chairs

Steven Chu
Director, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Professor of Physic sand Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Berkeley*
John Thornton
Chairman, The Brookings Institution; Professor, Tsinghua University; Board Member, Asia Society

*Co-chair until nominated by President-Elect Obama to be Secretary of Energy.

Senior Advisors

Jon Anda Board Member, Asia Society; former Vice Chairman, Morgan Stanley
Maria Cantwell U.S. Senator (D – Washington)
Dianne Feinstein U.S. Senator (D – California)
Henry Kissinger Former Secretary of State
Gavin Newsom Mayor of San Francisco
Lee Scott CEO, Wal-Mart
Laura D’Andrea Tyson S.K. and Angela Chan Professor, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley; former Chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors

Contributors

Jeffrey A. Bader Director, John L. Thornton China Center, The Brookings Institution
Jan Berris Vice President, National Committee on U.S.-China Relations
Larry Brilliant Executive Director, Google.org
William Chandler Director, Energy and Climate Program, Carnegie Endowment
Cheng Siwei Former Vice Chairman of the Tenth National People’s Congress Standing Committee
Chu Shulong Deputy Director, Institute of International Strategic and Development Studies, School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University
Elizabeth Economy C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
George Frampton Pegasus Capital Partners; former Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality
Thomas L. Fraser Attorney, New York
Kelly Sims Gallagher Director, Energy Technology Innovation Policy, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Robert Gee President, The Gee Strategies Group
Peter Goldmark Program Director, Climate and Air Program, Environmental Defense Fund
Sherri Goodman General Counsel, CNA Corporation
Dian M. Grueneich Commissioner, California Public Utilities Commission
Harry Harding Senior Fellow, Center on U.S.-China Relations; University Professor of International Affairs, George Washington University
Tony Haymet Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego
Tom Heller Professor of International Legal Studies, Stanford University Law School
Isabel Hilton Editor, China Dialogue
John Holdren Director, Woods Hole Research Center;Director, Program on Science, Technology and Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Trevor Houser Partner, the Rhodium Group; Visiting Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics
S.T. Hsieh Director, U.S.-China Energy and Environment Technology Center, Tulane University
Huang Ping Director General, Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Jiang Kejun Director and Research Professor, Energy System Analysis and Market Analysis Research Center, Energy Research Institute, China National Development and Reform Commission
C.S. Kiang Chairman, Peking University Environment Fund
Lin Jiang Vice President and Director of the China Sustainable Energy Program, Energy Foundation
Daniel M. Kammen Professor, Energy and Resources Group, Goldman School of Public Policy, and Department of Nuclear Engineering, and Founding Director, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley
David M. Lampton Director, China Studies, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
Michael Levi Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment and Director of the Program on Energy Security and Climate Change, Council on Foreign Relations
Mark Levine Professor, University of California, Berkeley; Director, Environmental Energy Technologies Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Kenneth Lieberthal Professor of Political Science and Business Administration, University of Michigan; Visiting Fellow in Foreign Policy, The Brookings Institution
Maura O’Neill Chief of Staff for Senator Maria Cantwell
Stephen Orlins President, National Committee on U.S.-China Relations
William Nitze Chairman, Oceana
Pan Jiahua Executive Director, Research Center for Sustainable Development, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
David Pumphrey Deputy Director, Energy and National Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Qi Ye Professor, Director of the Institute of Public Policy, School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University
David Sandalow Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, The Brookings Institution
Shankar Sastry Dean of the College of Engineering, UC Berkeley
Peter Schwartz Chairman, Global Business Network
Deborah Seligsohn Director, China Program, Climate Energy and Pollution Program, World Resources Institute
Susan Shirk Arthur Ross Resident Fellow, Asia Society;Professor of Political Science, University of California, San Diego; Director, Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation; former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
Rob Socolow Professor and Co-Director, The Carbon Mitigation Initiative, Princeton University
Todd Stern Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; Partner, Wilmer-Hale
Jennifer Turner Director, China Environment Forum, Woodrow Wilson Center
Wang Jisi Dean, School of International Studies, Peking University
Wu Jianmin President Emeritus, Foreign Affairs University
Wu Xiaolei Taipu Chair, Professor, Department of Energy and Resources Engineering, Peking University
David Yarnold Executive Vice President, Environmental Defense Fund
Zha Daojiong Professor, School of International Studies, Peking University
Zhang Haibin Associate Professor, School ofInternational Studies, Peking University; Member, Expert Team on Tradeand Environment, Ministry of Commerce
Zhang Xiliang Professor of Energy Economics, Executive Director, Institute of Energy and Environmental Economics, Tsinghua University
Zhou Dadi Advisor to the National Energy LeadingGroup, Energy Research Institute, China National Development and Reform Commission; Senior Associate, Carnegie Institute Energy & Climate Program
Zou Ji Vice Dean, School of Environment and Natural Resources, People’s University of China

This project arose and evolved through collaboration that also included the following groups and individuals:

The Brookings Institution: Kenneth Lieberthal and David Sandalow
Council on Foreign Relations: Elizabeth Economy and Michael Levi
Environmental Defense Fund: Peter Goldmark and David Yarnold
National Committee on U.S.-China Relations: Steve Orlins and Jan Berris