Cooperating for the Climate Learning from International Partnerships in China's Clean Energy Sector

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.

Joanna 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.

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