Remarks by Ambassador Jon Huntsman at the
Brookings Clean Energy Conference
October 22, 2009

 

AMBASSADOR HUNTSMAN:  It’s an honor to be able to say a few things after someone as respected as Tung Chee-hwa (Vice Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference).  It’s a pleasure to follow you, sir, and to have you in attendance today.

To John Thornton, Chair of Brookings, Zheng Bijian (Chairman of the China Institute of Strategy and Management) and so many others who are responsible for this gathering.  To Ambassador Roy, my predecessor, whose good work I am now benefiting from enormously.  He wasn’t able to change the [Ambassador's] residence, but that’s another story.

I also want to point out the good work of Ken Lieberthal (Director of the John L. Thornton China Center and a Senior Fellow at Brookings), who is here as well, a good friend who has given us intellectual sustenance, things to think about as public servants, as we look toward a better, cleaner, more efficient future in the energy sector.

Without sounding too much over the top, I want you all to know that this is a pretty important gathering, and if David Sandalow, the Assistant Secretary of Energy, who is right here with me as well, if he were standing up here, he would say the same thing.  This gathering and those of you representing private industry, local government, national government positions, you are all in a position to change the world.  If I had to identify, at least given my two months of experience in China, if I had to identify an area that holds more promise and more potential in a positive way for the U.S. and China, and indeed for the entire world, it would be the industry that we are here to talk about: a cleaner, greener, energy future and, of course, climate change.

I’m glad that you're here.  Let’s see if we can make something out of it.

As Tung Chee-hwa mentioned, it is the 30^th anniversary of the U.S.-China bilateral relationship, the formal bilateral relationship.  And just to put it in perspective as I begin, a few thoughts.  When you look back to 1979 and you consider that in the earliest days of our formal diplomatic relationship there were 1,200 foreigners in Beijing.  Today we have more than that [affiliated with] the U.S. embassy alone.

When you consider the Americans who are now roaming around China, we probably have more in China than the entire state of Montana.  Although Brian Schweitzer, my good friend the Governor, probably wouldn’t like that comparison.

Thirty years ago there really were no private cars on the road.  Today we’re all painfully aware of the 60 million that exist on the roads and the 10 million units that are being manufactured each year.  China’s GDP has increased 82-fold since the early days of our relationship, a testament to the ingenuity, commercial dynamism and entrepreneurship of the Chinese people.

I remember reading in George [H. W.] Bush’s book – which he reminded me to read and then re-read it again when I called him and told him I was going to be moving over here, he served as Ambassador in 1974 and 1975 – he lamented the fact that in 1975 our bilateral [trade] relationship had gone from $1 billion to $500 million that year. 

Now I suspect there are some companies in this room that have investments in China well beyond $500 million. Today we’re looking at $400 billion in two-way trade.

Thirty years ago the talk of rule of law, civil society kind of took place among a few intellectuals in certain corners of the country.  Today there’s widespread discussion driven by 60 million bloggers and 325 million internet users.

And get this.  In 1979 the U.S. Embassy issued 4,700 non-immigrant visas for Chinese citizens traveling to the United States of whom 770 were students.  Last year our embassy and all associated consulates in China issued nearly half a million non-immigrant visas to Chinese citizens, and 77,000 were students.  That’s right.  A hundred times more than in 1979.  And I have the feeling this is just the beginning.

In 1979 there were very few news correspondents working the China beat.  All of them here ended up writing a book, representing the great appetite for information in those early years about China.  Today there are 150 correspondents stationed in this neighborhood.  Every one of them writes a blog and nearly all seem to have book contracts.

On the foreign policy side, in 1979 China was categorically opposed to UN peacekeeping operations.  Things have changed in that regard too.  China is one of the largest contributors of troops who are involved in peacekeeping operations, having sent over 10,000 troops since 1989.

It was a different lay of the land in the northern part of ASEAN in the late 1970s as well.  Countries at war, in conflict.  Today the region is peaceful as both the United States and China build healthy economic and trade relations with ASEAN members.

And of course all of you know the relationship in the late 1970s between China and North Korea was a much different dynamic than it is today. 

So my first point is this.  As China has reemerged and as our bilateral relationship has matured, it has become obvious that absent our close cooperation, in ways in which our two presidents have said must be positive and comprehensive, many of the most pressing global challenges cannot be successfully addressed let alone successfully managed.  So we share many of the same views about problems in the world and recognize that our work together has implications far beyond our bilateral concerns.

Now this doesn’t mean we’re always going to agree, but it should mean that we will always be respectful, that we will treat each other as equal partners, and we will more than ever before seek to understand our shared interests.

Let me turn for a moment to energy and climate change and get right to the point.

As Governor, which is a position I enjoyed enormously before I got called into the Oval Office a few months ago.  Maybe we can talk about that a little bit later.  But I heard as Governor time and time again that there’s no sense in having the United States spend any time working on climate change issues if China isn’t going to work on it as well and meaningfully engage.  It was an old excuse to run for cover from a very daunting task.  But we all know today the health and future of our planet and our people require bold action and action now.

In fact China is working the issue much more than most people give it credit for.  As my good friend Ken Lieberthal has pointed out, it faces major fundamental constraints in areas like human capital, infrastructure, social organizations and technological know-how.

These are issues we too have struggled with in the various states in America, and particularly at the local government level.  Perhaps just as China now has and will have in the future new and innovative ways of handling climate change matters, we too have some ideas to offer from the heartland of America, and we should be looking for new points of collaboration like never before.

Let me point out one example.  In my previous life as Governor of the State of Utah, I was elected Chair of the Western Governors Association by my fellow governors.  As Chair of the Western Governors Association, which is essentially an organization consisting of governors from 20 states ranging from Hawaii, California, Alaska, eastward to Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas – I think Texas is still part of the union, I can’t quite keep track of that one – and everything in between, I decided that we were going to focus my year as Chairman on engaging the Chinese at the provincial level, on sharing technology and working on real solutions for clean energy and climate change, because it is at the provincial and local government levels where these problems are playing out in real time.  Governors, mayors and their counterparts right here in China are dealing with the real effects of climate change and the ever-increasing demands for energy, two areas that don’t readily converge with one another in a complementary fashion.

My fellow governors hearing now the warning of drought, coastal flooding, reduced snow pack and the cost associated with the effects of climate change agreed just last year that we should reach out for a global partnership, which I would add is something most governors don’t find a natural thought.

We started engaging with Chinese universities and think tanks on ways to share experiences and how to invest in cleaner technologies and renewable energy opportunities along with innovative solutions on carbon capture and sequestration, something Orville Schell (Director of the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations) and others in this room have taken very, very seriously, so as to retrofit older, dirtier sources of power generation that were already in existence in both countries.

We were surprised to find out how far the Chinese had already come and how much they were actually investing in these new technologies.  We started sending working groups to China.  Just this last June we invited a Chinese delegation to attend the Western Governors Association Annual Meeting in Park City, Utah.  Now mindful, because I hope you are, of the fact that a foreign delegation had never attended a Western Governors Association meeting of any kind, it turned out to be the largest gathering in the history of the Western Governors Association.  We heard from many of the President’s Cabinet; my good friend Bob Zoellich, President of the World Bank; and of course a very distinguished panel on climate change, including our own Secretary [of Energy] Steven Chu.

Shortly thereafter I got called into the Oval Office and my life changed considerably.  But I’m here to tell you that we expect a large group of Western governors to continue this work through an energy mission in the months ahead, to continue engagement.  Because these types of partnerships are precisely the models that will lead to future successes in this particular sector.

Working together on shared solutions is a pathway forward for our two countries.  Things like building codes, electric vehicles, new and innovative technologies that make large-scale renewable projects a reality, along with the transmission capability to deliver that energy.  There are all kinds of ways we can work together to benefit our businesses, our schools and our individual homes.  And cleaning up a planet that we both share all the while.

I think you all will agree with this statement.  You see, we’re all downstream of one another.  And it doesn’t surprise our private sector representatives here in this room that it isn’t just government and NGOs who are engaged in this process.  One thing I keep hearing about in my travels around China is how many companies, including those involved in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, are moving forward on their planning for cap and trade, for example.  Doing the economics to show that it can make the case in a sensible way, and beginning to integrate these plans into their corporate strategies.  They see this as integral to their overall economic success going forward.

Now the United States supports the fundamental right of China and other developing countries to grow.  However, it is now clear that the only way to achieve a sustainable development future is through a low carbon pathway.

China clearly realizes that business as usual, as we heard from Premier Wen Jiabao just last night, is not sustainable and is in fact taking important steps toward a clean energy economy.

We should also recognize that the clean energy and climate change challenge is also an opportunity for sustainable growth, not a tradeoff between economic growth and environmental protection.  Indeed, clean, sustainable energy will be key to robust economic growth in coming years as cutting edge technologies are eventually commercialized.

While the action we take to reduce emissions will be different, we must demonstrate at Copenhagen this December that a global solution to climate change is possible.  The United States and China must lead out because if we don’t, nobody else will.

There is much we can do to meet the clean energy and climate challenge.  It was in the spirit of mutual benefit as evidenced recently by our various policy dialogues, particularly that of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue held recently in Washington, joining together to establish things like the Joint Clean Energy Research Center that David Sandalow and others have been responsible for, to develop new and innovative ways of addressing the energy challenges that we face in both countries.

Public/private partnerships, private investment and innovation will ultimately find the technology and market solutions for the planet crisis with the right incentives, support and market signals.  The private sector can find the practical, cost-effective approaches.

We can reward those who are efficient while finding ways to compel those who are inefficient to change how they use energy and do business.  Markets are the key.  Incentives, regulation and enforcement are the gears.

I applaud the organizers of this conference for bringing government, academia and private sector experts all together to hear insights and learn how, particularly under the banner of the U.S.-China relationship, we can make it happen.

The science tells us that we have no choice but to find new ways of doing things.  As partners in this effort, the United States and China can get the vision and employ the resources to chart a new course to a low carbon economic future.  We can make strides at Copenhagen, but we’ll need a strategy that goes beyond Copenhagen.

So remember that in this century, one which is environmentally friendly and addresses new models of economic development, innovation and breakthroughs will be critical.

So are we up to the challenge?  I think at the 30 year mark in the U.S.-China relationship we are up to the challenge indeed.  I am convinced that we’ll be able to rise up to the task at hand.

Let me leave you with my favorite Chinese aphorism which will suggest that we have no choice:  (Speaking in Mandarin) hu xiang xue xi, hu xiang bang zhu, gong tong jin bu.  I say that because I’ve been approached on numerous occasions to give the one word that describes the current state of play in the U.S.-China relationship.  And my answer is always, I would do the relationship a great disservice if I were to discount the good work that has been done and distill it into one word.  That simply can’t be done.  But there is an aphorism in words (Speaking in Mandarin): hu xiang xue xi, hu xiang bang zhu, gong tong jin bu.  Because we’re going to have to work together.  We’re going to have to study and investigate together, and then together we’ll be able to progress to change the world for the better.

Thank you all so very much for allowing me to spend a few minutes with you.

 

 

####