A Roadmap for U.S.-China Collaboration on Carbon Capture and Sequestration

As the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, the U.S. and China can work together on halting and reversing the effects of climate change while also strengthening bilateral relations. One critical pathway for collaboration, described in a November 2009 report from Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and the Center for American Progress, is the development and implementation of carbon capture and sequestration technology, or CCS, which has the potential to mitigate emissions from coal-fired power plants.

The report, A Roadmap for U.S.-China Collaboration on Carbon Capture and Sequestration, describes a model for a U.S.-China partnership on CCS that would advance long-term research, development, and deployment of commercial-scale CCS while laying the foundation for potential emissions reductions and developing a new architecture for financing CCS projects. The model is built on three complementary recommendations:

1. Sequestering the pure carbon dioxide streams from existing commercial power plants
2. Investing in research and development on retrofitting older power plants over the medium and long terms
3. Catalyzing markets for CCS, by providing financial incentives for private capital to invest in CCS projects

The project was started by the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and the Center for American Progress and benefited from the input of a cadre of specialists from almost every relevant field. The Monitor Group worked tirelessly and pro bono to galvanize the effort to completion. This is the second report of the Initiative on U.S.-China Collaboration for Energy and Climate.