Energy and environmental issues pose not only global topics for the survival and development of humanity but stark challenges facing both China and the United States in the 21st century. The fourth China-U.S. strategic economic dialogues (SED), to be held in the U.S. this week, taking the sustainable economic growth as the gist, will work out plans for bilateral energy cooperation in the next decade. It illustrates the mutual concern of the two largest energy producer and consumer on earth as well as their voluntary assumption of the common mission of humanity.
As is known to all, China supports 22 percent of the global population with less than 10 percent of the world's total farmland. Likewise, China meets its energy demand in the course of development mainly through self-reliant efforts.
China propped up an annual GDP growth rate of 9.9 percent with an annual increase rate of 5.4 percent in energy consumption between 1980 and 2007, and its ratio of energy self-sufficiency reached more than 90 percent during this period. The annual energy consumption decreased from 3.39 tons to 1.17 tons of standard coal equivalent (SCE) per 10000 RMB yuan of GDP from 1980 to 2007 with an average energy saving rate of 3.9 percent each year.
Meanwhile, the country has discharged an accumulated total of some 5 billion tons of carbon dioxide less since 1980, thanks to a nationwide afforestation campaign and other related tree-planting measures. These attainments contributed immensely to the world's energy security and global economic stability.
China is confronted with a growing, outstanding contradiction between its population and resources environment, as the nation is at a stage of accelerated industrialization and urbanization. For this reason, its government has given due heed to and adhered to the policy of placing equal stress on development and conservation while giving priority to conservation, and dedicated itself to building a resource-conserving and environmentally-friendly society. It has publicized the maximal restrictive policy for any nation so far in history with regard to energy conservation and population reduction, by setting a target of reducing its energy intensity 20 percent and reducing its discharge of main pollutants by 10 percent in a five-year period between 2005 and 2010.
China is a developing nation with the fastest economic growth, and the U.S. is a developed nation with the biggest overall supply and demand, and the urgent task laid before them is to tackle the thorny, headache energy and environmental issues. The enhancement of Sino-U.S. cooperation in the energy conservation and environmental protection is of great significance for assuring their energy safety, improving their environment, coping with the global climate change and realizing the common prosperity. In the world today, the vast majority of the nations cannot acquire energy security guarentee without an access to international cooperation.
Proceeding from the interest of humanity, China has initiated a new concept of energy security characterized by mutual benefit, multivariable development and coordinated assurance and shown its active approach as a responsible big developing nation.
Owing to a lot of converging points of interest in their energy and environment sphere, China and the U.S. have broad cooperation prospects with great mutual complementarity. China has a huge demand and a vast market in energy conservation and environmental protection, whereas the U.S. has abundant capital, the advanced expertise and rich experience in raising energy efficiency, developing the clean energy and exploring and tapping oil and natural gas resources. Increased bilateral cooperation is conducive not only for China to upgrade its capacity of coping with environmental issues, but for U.S. to reap handsome returns for American business from its investment and technologies. So, there is a great potential in bilateral energy and environmental cooperation yet to be tapped to the full with tremendous business opportunities involved.
Evidences have proven that China and the U.S. are not only each other's stakeholders but construction partners. For a long period of time, they have inked a couple of agreements, set up an energy policy dialogue, the Sino-US oil and natural gas forum and other exchange platforms, and formed a highly-effective cooperative mechanism. And commercial cooperation have been crowned with repeated successes. As a matter of fact, the U.S. has become the nation to be involved in the most cooperative items in China's petroleum industry. Persevering, unremitting efforts made by both sides have enabled such kind of cooperation to be imbued with an increasing global importance.
All limited energy resources are for the whole globe to share, and its duty bound for each nation to cherish and treasure these assets. In view of their accumulated energy consumption in history, current per-capita discharge (of pollutions), different phases of development as well as respective national conditions and abilities, countries should take their differentiated responsibilities, obligations and measures for energy conservation and environmental protection. People worldwide sincerely hope that the in-depth, penetrating Sino-US energy and environmental cooperation can bring new, glad tidings for the human civilization and development. By working hand in hand, China and the U.S. are meant not only to have common interests but to bear their shared responsibilities.
The SED was launched jointly by Chinese President Hu Jintao and U.S. President George W. Bush in September of 2006. The dialogue is held twice a year, alternating between the two countries. The previous meeting was held in Beijing in December last year.
By People's Daily Online, and its author is senior PD desk editor Gong Wen.
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