Dive Brief:
- A climate deal inked between the United States and China includes provisions for the two countries to partner on a clean coal facility that would be located in China and could be capable of storing 1 million tons of carbon dioxide while creating fresh water in the process.
- The two sides will make equal funding commitments to the project as well as seeking additional commitments from the private sector and other nations, E&E Publishing reports.
- As part of the announcement, the United States will cut net greenhouse gas emissions 26% to 28% percent below 2005 levels by 2025 and China announced targets to peak CO2 emissions around 2030, and to increase the non-fossil fuel share of all energy to around 20% by 2030.
Dive Insight:
As the United States shutters coal facilities, China is opening more of them. The joint plan to construct a facility capable of store carbon dioxide while creating water would help China with its emissions issues while possibly building in-roads for the U.S. coal industry there.
The prospects for the plant actually getting built are unclear, reports E&E Publishing, given delays and cost overruns that have plagued other carbon capture projects in both countries.
The climate and clean energy announcement made last week calls for the U.S. to double the pace of carbon pollution reduction from 1.2% per year on average during the 2005-2020 period to 2.3% to 2.8% annually on average between 2020 and 2025.
"This ambitious target is grounded in intensive analysis of cost-effective carbon pollution reductions achievable under existing law and will keep the United States on the right trajectory to achieve deep economy-wide reductions on the order of 80% by 2050," the Department of State said.
Plans for the joint coal facility have taken the clean energy industry by surprise, E&E reported. "We haven't been told" about the project, said Jim Wood, the director of the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center. "We're waiting to hear what [the Department of Energy] says our role will be."
