Chu tells China ‘we’re all in this together’

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu is in Beijing this week to talk about climate change with Chinese leaders in the hopes to open the nation’s market to American clean technology products while pushing China to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“What China and the U.S. do in the future in large part will determine the fate of the world,” Chu said in a speech at Tsinghua University, as reported in the L.A. Times. “We’re all in this together.”

Chu warned that if China continued on its path, in 30 years it would have equaled all the carbon pollution the U.S. has ever released.

But Chu has a solution – develop clean technology in the U.S. and export it to China. The transfer of this technology is one of the chief topics he is expected to discuss on his trip.

As we’ve been saying, if we don’t develop the technology here, it won’t make its way to China, India and other places in the developing world that will continue to use massive amounts of coal no matter what we do in the United States. Even the L.A. Times acknowledged that the U.S. has the know-how in carbon capture that would benefit the Chinese.

If we want to address a global issue such as climate change, Chu’s right – China must be part of the solution.