A Vital Partnership: California and China Collaborating On
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
3/8” 1 | ASIA SOCIETY A VITAL PARTNERSHIP CHAPTER HEADING ASIA SOCIETY | 1 An Asia Society Special Report ANDS SUNNYL AT T RETREA ANNENBERG ANNENBERG THE THE 合作伙伴: An Asia Society Special Report A Vital Partnership A Vital 应对气候变化 加利福尼亚州与中国携手发展清洁能源和 至关重要的合作伙伴关系: A Vital Partnership: California and China Collaborating on 至关重要的合作伙伴关系 Clean Energy and Combating Climate Change 亚洲协会特别报告 A PARTNERSHIP AMONG: THE ANNENBERG RETREAT AT SUNNYLANDS 亚洲协会特别报告 3/8” VitalPartnership_cover_CHS.indd 1 2014/12/17 9:46:02 2 | ASIA SOCIETY A VITAL PARTNERSHIP This report was completed by Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and the Asia Society Northern California Center in partnership with the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Energy Foundation, International Council on Clean Transportation, Energy and Environmental Economics, and Center on Emerging and Pacific Economies at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at U.C. San Diego. THE ANNENBERG RETREAT AT SUNNYLANDS © 2014 Asia Society Cover photo courtesy of Brad Adams, Governor’s Office of Emergency Services Asia Society Center on U.S.-China Relations Asia Society Northern California 725 Park Avenue 500 Washington Street, Suite 350 New York, NY 10021 San Francisco, CA 94111 Phone: 212-288-6400 Phone: 415-421-8707 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] AsiaSociety.org/Center-US-China-Relations AsiaSociety.org/NorthernCalifornia 2 | ASIA SOCIETY A VITAL PARTNERSHIP CHAPTER HEADING ASIA SOCIETY | 1 CONTENTS FOREWORD . 2 INTRODUCTION: A VITAL PARTNERSHIP . 3 I: NAVIGATING CALIFORNIA-CHINA COLLABORATIONS . 7 California Air Resources Board . 9 California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development / California-China Office of Trade and Investment . 12 California Energy Commission . 14 Pacific Gas & Electric Company . 17 Climate Policy Initiative . 19 Energy Foundation . 21 ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability . 25 International Council on Clean Transportation . 27 Environmental Defense Fund . 30 Natural Resources Defense Council . 33 Regulatory Assistance Project . 36 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory China Energy Group . 38 University of California San Diego . 41 Bay Area Council . 43 II: LOOKING FORWARD . 45 APPENDIX: CALIFORNIA-CHINA MEMORANDA OF UNDERSTANDING . 46 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . 55 2 | ASIA SOCIETY A VITAL PARTNERSHIP FOREWORD THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA has undertaken a host of projects with the People’s Republic of China as part of a significant effort to jointly address the challenge of global climate change at the subnational level. Some of the most important efforts have been organized directly by the office of California Governor Edmund G. Brown, who is building from a bipartisan legacy of projects, some of which were initiated by his predecessor Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Others have been led jointly by state agencies with the support of state-based companies and nonprofit environmental organizations. The Asia Society and the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands have prepared the following summation of these impressive initiatives with the hope that the unique interaction between California and China will help inspire new forms of constructive subnational efforts to address our critical transnational problems. The latest agreement in November 2014 between the United States and China to reduce carbon emissions will help set a new course in the effort for greater international cooperation on climate change, but states, provinces, and municipalities also have a vital role to play. We hope that subnational government leaders in both the United States and China will find it instructive, helpful, and even inspiring to read this summation of California’s experience in seeking ways to collaborate with counterparts in China. Orville Schell Arthur Ross Director Center on U.S.-China Relations Asia Society Geoffrey Cowan President, The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands University Professor & Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership, University of Southern California 2 | ASIA SOCIETY A VITAL PARTNERSHIP CHAPTER HEADING ASIA SOCIETY | 3 INTRODUCTION: A VITAL PARTNERSHIP THE THREAT OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE DANGERS IT POSES to human health, economic output, agricultural production, and global environmental well-being confront the United States and China with an urgent new area of common interest: the planet’s atmosphere. As the two largest global emitters of greenhouse gases, our countries share the challenge of transforming each of our current fossil fuel–based energy systems into clean twenty-first-century energy systems that remain cornerstones of our vigorous economies while protecting our shared climate, along with our clean air, clean water and other precious natural resources. The Obama administration has taken some important steps on climate change, but with federal climate protection legislation still not forthcoming from Washington, D.C., there is an opportunity for U.S. leadership in this area from state and local governments. California’s legacy of environmental protection is well known. For decades, the state government has enacted many of the nation’s strictest environmental standards while maintaining impressive economic growth. As a coastal state with a dry climate, a vital agricultural sector, and world- class biodiversity, California is particularly mindful of the impacts of climate change. In response to the challenge, California is demonstrating the way to take effective actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while expanding economic opportunities. With California at the forefront of global science and technology, the state’s leaders understand that developing clean, state-of-the-art energy systems is essential to the state’s future prosperity, and they also understand that California’s future is closely tied to China’s progress in this area. Recognizing that subnational cooperation will play an important part in any meaningful overall agenda for addressing the global climate challenge, the state has stepped up its efforts to share its own experience and expertise through direct exchanges with counterparts in China. These exchanges have also allowed California policy makers to learn from China’s successes in the climate and clean energy arena. In California’s 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act (Assembly Bill 32), the state legally committed itself to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. This law’s goal is being implemented through a wide array of policies – more than sixty in all – that include a cap-and-trade market that puts a price on carbon, a renewable portfolio standard that requires at least one-third of the state’s electric power to come from renewable energy, a mandate to put 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles on the road, and building codes that require new construction to be thrifty with energy use. As ambitious as these policies are, they are just the beginning of a long journey toward the state’s goal of an 80% reduction in greenhouse gases below 1990 levels by 2050, consistent with what scientists say will be needed worldwide to keep global warming within tolerable limits. China’s central government has also undertaken a number of important climate and clean energy initiatives, including a binding commitment to reduce the carbon intensity of GDP by 4 | ASIA SOCIETY A VITAL PARTNERSHIP 40% to 45% below 2005 levels by 2020, and more recently, a pledge to reach peak emissions by 2030, if not sooner. China is also committed to establishing a national carbon market by 2020 – an idea that is already being tested experimentally in seven provincial pilot programs – and to expanding non-fossil fuels to around 20% of the primary energy supply. A new sense of urgency to clean up China’s energy systems is being felt in the wake of extended periods of severe air pollution in many Chinese cities in 2013. As a result, a new air quality law calls for sweeping new regulations of emissions from power plants and vehicles in China’s densely populated coastal regions. Despite a renewed bilateral pledge agreed to in November 2014 by the United States and China to confront carbon emissions, there is still lack of agreement on meaningful, legally binding international actions on climate change. As such, subnational levels of government and their ability to form voluntary partnerships have become even more important pieces in the mosaic of any global climate change remedy. The subnational level is particularly important in the United States and China, where the practical implementation of energy and environmental protection policies in such areas as electricity, transportation, and buildings lies largely within the purview of provincial and municipal governments. Moreover, in China, policy experiments at the subnational level often take the form of pilot projects that, if successful, can become models that influence broader policy decisions made by the central government. California’s government understands the important role that subnational governments can play in addressing the climate problem by forming voluntary partnerships both within their own countries and with international partners. As California’s Assembly Bill 32 states, “National and international actions are necessary to fully address the issue of global warming. However, action taken by California to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases will have far- reaching effects by encouraging other states, the federal government, and other countries to act.” California