The Center for American Progress and Asia Society Center for U.S.-China Relations, together with its partners Monitor Group and Dr. S. Julio Friedmann of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, will release a new report, "A Roadmap for U.S.-China Collaboration on Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS)." "The Roadmap" provides a framework for long-term bilateral cooperation in the development and deployment of CCS technologies, and demonstrates the job creation opportunities and consumer savings for a cooperative pathway over the United States and China separately developing these technologies.
Clean energy and climate change has been elevated to the top of the diplomatic agenda between the United States and China, which together account for almost half of the world’s annual carbon emissions. Collaboration between both countries in developing low-carbon solutions is critical to avoid the potentially catastrophic consequences of global warming.
Since both the United States and China rely heavily on coal as an energy source, addressing emissions from coal combustion has to be part of a portfolio approach to tackling climate change. CCS is a process that separates and captures carbon dioxide from large point sources such as coal power plants, and stores it away from the atmosphere by underground sequestration, among other means. Cooperative efforts between the United States and China that advance the long-term research, development, and deployment of commercial CCS could produce tremendous benefits for both nations, including job growth and lower electricity costs for Americans.