American/Chinese Cooperation on Climate Change Mitigation

It’s no secret that the American business community and the government entities that support it distrusts the Chinese when it comes to things like IP theft.

I’m not saying that this is unwarranted, but it’s certainly regrettable.  That’s because it stands in the way of cooperation, and lack of cooperation means lack of synergy, thus impeding progress in various technological disciplines.  Now, if by “technological disciplines” we were referring exclusive to 5G or Big Data, I’m not sure most people would care.

The problem is that this impasse includes the decarbonization of energy and transportation.  The COP 27 meeting in Egypt shines a spotlight on precisely why this is so catastrophic.  Midway through the conference we find ourselves facing a reprise of so many earlier events, in which everyone paying attention despairs that the 200+ sovereign countries on this planet continue to a) point fingers at one another or b) make promises they have no intention of keeping.

The gentleman I interviewed for a chapter on climate change in my first book, Renewable Energy–Facts and Fantasies, Veerabhadran Ramanathan said, “We had to stay at COP 15 an extra day, because not one of us was able to write down a single declarative statement in the English language that stated what we had accomplished in the previous two weeks.