The government of California and China’s Ministry of Science and Technology announced on Monday, June 5, 2017 that they would work together to develop clean energy technologies, cooperate on emissions trading and explore other “climate-positive” trade and investment opportunities.
California and China agreed to establish the California-China Clean Technology Partnership, designed to drive innovation and commercialisation in areas such as carbon capture and storage, clean energy, and advanced information technology that could help cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to a Tuesday statement.
“The challenges are big but so too is the commitment – the commitment of Jiangsu Province with California and China with the people of America. We’re going to get it done. Nothing will stop us,” Governor Edmund Gerald Brown said. “Green is not only gold, green is our future – China, California and America and the other countries of the world are all working for the prosperity of the people.”
The Governor’s remarks came on World Environment Day at the International Summit of New Environmental Protection Technology in Nanjing on Monday.
Brown told reporters on the sidelines of the event that the failure of leadership from the United States was “only temporary” and said science and the market would be required to get past it.
Joint pledges by China and the United States ahead of the Paris talks helped create the momentum required to secure the Paris Climate Change Agreement, and included a promise by China to establish a nationwide emissions trading exchange by this year.
Brown said last week that he would discuss linking China’s carbon trading platforms with California’s, the biggest in the United States.
