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US in danger of falling behind on climate: Official

By Tan Yingzi (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-30 11:11

WASHINGTON - The United States' leadership in science and technology is at risk, said US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu on Monday, who added that the US should learn from China's success in clean energy innovations.

"From wind power to nuclear reactors to high-speed rail, China and other countries are moving aggressively to capture the lead," he said in a speech at the National Press Club. "America still has the opportunity to lead in a world that will need a new industrial revolution to give us energy we want inexpensively and carbon free. I think time is running out."

With 17 national labs that hold the world's best scientific and computing resources, the Department of Energy is on the frontlines of the US' efforts in clean energy innovation.

Chu highlighted several crucial areas of high technology that the US must begin to address or risk falling far behind, such as high voltage transmission, high-speed rail, advanced coal technology, nuclear power, alternative energy vehicles, renewable energy and supercomputing.

He noted that China's strategy in nurturing innovation is to use government policies to guide the private sectors into playing the leading role in research and development, while in the US, in 2010, only 0.14 percent of the federal budget was invested in energy R&D.

"Federal support of scientific research and development is critical to our economic competitiveness," he said.

According to A Business Plan for America's Energy Future by the American Energy Innovation Council, the government must play a key role in accelerating energy innovation, because the energy business requires investment of capital at a scale that is beyond the risk threshold of most private-sector investors.

"We should formulate sensible, long range energy policies that have bipartisan support to guide the private sector of the US and increase support of energy R&D, especially where private investments don't recoup the full value of the shared social good or when a new technology would displace an embedded way of doing business," he said.

Chu also said China's investments in clean energy technologies represent both a challenge and an opportunity for the US.

"We have much to gain by cooperating with China, India and other countries," he said. "These countries present us with new markets, a laboratory for innovation."

The two major economic powers account for 42 percent of global energy demand and share similar challenges, such as huge investments in power infrastructure, the reduction of CO2 emissions and dependence on coal-based power generation.

Seven programs on clean energy that were announced by Chinese President Hu Jintao and US President Barack Obama during their 2009 Beijing summit have resulted in significant opportunities for cooperation between the two countries in many aspects of clean energy, including research, technology, manufacturing, regulatory policy and low carbon-development strategies.

China Daily