Cooperating for the Climate

The intricacies, politics, and prospects of international cooperation, particularly with China, to address climate change.

No country in the world releases more greenhouse gases than China. And no country has a greater capacity—and ambition—to mitigate climate change. This deeply informed, urgently needed book examines the global cooperation such a monumental effort demands and inspires, necessarily focusing on China’s outsize role in the development and dissemination of clean energy technologies. Drawing on decades of work in clean energy and climate technology and policy, Joanna Lewis provides a clear and thorough account of the motivations, science, and politics behind international clean energy technology collaboration—and an in-depth look at why different clean energy partnerships result in different political and technological outcomes.
 
The first comprehensive analysis of international clean energy partnerships with China, Cooperating for the Climate is based on hundreds of interviews with government officials, researchers, and private companies involved in these collaborative initiatives around the world. Its insights into energy innovation and international relations, as well as global environmental politics, will help international stakeholders navigate the complex political bureaucracy governing clean energy development in China and perhaps chart a productive pathway for moving the world toward a low-carbon future.Acknowledgments ix
1 Cooperating for the Climate 1
2 The Rise of China's Clean Energy Sector 23
3 International Climate and Energy Engagement with China 45
4 The "Climate G-2": Climate and Energy Cooperation in the US-China Relationship 81
5 Scientific Collaboration for Climate Diplomacy: The US-China Clean Energy Research Center 117
6 Technical Cooperation Shaping Domestic Energy Policy: Sino-Danish Clean Energy Cooperation and the China National Renewable Energy Center 165
7 South-South Clean Energy Cooperation: The China-Brazil Center for Climate Change and Energy Technology Innovation 201
8 The Role of International Cooperation in Scaling Low-Carbon Energy Technologies 233
Notes 253
Bibliography 307
Index 349“Joanna Lewis persuasively lays out the case for why US–China cooperation is not only possible, but absolutely necessary, presenting myriad examples of how clean energy and climate partnerships worked and how they can work again.”
—Jerry Brown, Governor of California, 1975–83 and 2011–19
 
“A timely and comprehensive summary of the history of China–international climate cooperation, full of lessons learned and guidance for future engagement.”
—Zou Ji, CEO and President, Energy Foundation China
 
“This deeply informative and timely book teaches us about the kinds of climate change and energy cooperation with China that have been important in the past and need to become important again.”
—Todd Stern, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; and former Special Envoy for Climate Change
 
“Cooperating for Climate provides a unique, comparative perspective on the role of international cooperation advancing green energy innovation, financing and deployment, offering a much-needed framework on how to advance the global green agenda.”
—Craig Allen, U.S. Ambassador (retired), and President, US–China Business CouncilJoanna I. Lewis is Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor of Energy and Environment and director of the Science, Technology and International Affairs Program at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. She is the author of the award-winning book Green Innovation in China and was a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report.