Senior
U.S.
and
Chinese officials said Thursday the two countries needed to urgently increase
carbon capture utilization and storage demonstrations and enable commercial
deployment of the technology by the end of the decade.
Carbon capture and storage "is one of the low-carbon technology options
critical to the global quest to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to the
atmosphere," said a joint statement from the Carbon Sequestration
Leadership Forum, attended by U.S Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and others.
It called on leaders attending the United Nations' climate change conference in
South Africa
at
the end of the year to recognize the role of carbon capture and storage in
reducing greenhouse gases, and said financing for pilot programs remained a
challenge.
Many pilot programs are occurring in
China
,
though foreign developers say they are concerned about protecting intellectual
property when partnering with Chinese energy and utility companies.
Chu
said
both the
U.S.
and
China
needed to protect their respective intellectual property.
"We intend to develop a lot of intellectual property together that we can
also share," he said.
On Wednesday,
China
's
Ministry of Environmental Protection said it would tighten emission controls on
thermal power plants for the first time since 2003. The new standards, which
take effect Jan. 1, take aim at pollutants including sulfur dioxide and
nitrogen oxide. They will also require mercury emissions be monitored for the
first time.
The new controls could cost the thermal power industry CNY260 billion ($40.7
billion) in upgrading its facilities, the ministry said.
Increasingly stringent government pollution regulations have made
China
a
destination for renewable energy research and development. Its wind and solar
companies, for example, are among global industry leaders and are undercutting
renewable energy companies in the
U.S.
and
elsewhere.
Government subsidies for Chinese renewable energy companies have become a
sticking point in U.S.-China relations.
Washington
has
complained about a lack of transparency for some subsidies. Under pressure from
the Obama administration,
China
this
summer agreed to end some subsidies for its wind equipment manufacturers.
Earlier this month, wind turbine designer American Superconductor Corp. said it
was suing
China
's largest
wind-turbine manufacturer, Sinovel Wind Group Co. (AMSC), for corporate
espionage. The
U.S.
company said one of its Austria-based employees sold turbine-controlling
software to Sinovel for $1 million. Sinovel has denied any wrongdoing.