Scholars from the United States and China gathered on Saturday to seek common ground in battling climate change at the 16th U.S.-China Green Energy Summit.
At the summit held at Stanford University in California, attendees reached a strong consensus that actions on climate change can no longer be delayed.
Zhang Jianmin, Chinese Consul General in San Francisco, emphasized the importance of addressing the climate issue on all fronts.
"So to address the impacts of climate change, it might be a good idea to start improving the climate of our bilateral relationship," said Zhang Jianmin, Chinese Consul General in San Francisco.
Organizers brought together the U.S. and Chinese experts from across a number of sectors for solutions and partnerships to decarbonize the economy.
"We're running out of time, so we must take some quick and direct action. So, then we have to find what's the right approach? That's why I tried to approach it from the technology side sector, from the investment sector, from business, and then policy. These four sectors must work together. As I said, like a car that has four wheels, we have to move it forward at the same speed," said Wang Qi, Chairman and CEO of the U.S.-China Green Energy Council.
Stephen Chu, a Nobel Laureate and former U.S. Secretary of Energy, noted that the Earth's climate has warmed faster than anticipated and is now on track for a three-degree Celsius temperature climb by the year 2100.
Chu also pointed out that while Artificial Intelligence is helping solve problems, it's also consuming increasing amounts of energy and emitting massive amounts of carbon.
"The secret is how do you decrease the energy consumption of the current large language models and other things? It can be done on the program side and they're working hard and doing that. It can be done on the hardware side," he said.
Chu also had some novel ideas, such as raising cultivated forests to provide more wood in constructing buildings. He pointed to China's Forbidden City as an example of buildings that have stood the test of time while being environmentally conscious.
"We need a new industrial revolution. We've got to decarbonize everything, not only electricity and transportation, but how we manufacture materials from concrete and cement to steel, to plastics and chemicals and all these things. That's huge amounts of carbon," he said.
Creative solutions were a big focus of the event, and former U.S. presidential candidate and technology investor Tom Steyer shared his insights on the issue.
"What I would like to see going forward that I believe will be the spur to solve this problem is a Chinese and American agreement about measurement -- information that together we recognize, we measure emissions, we measure sequestration. We agree together," said Steyer, who is also Co-Executive Chair of Galvanize Climate Solutions.
The U.S. and China are indeed the world's biggest carbon emitters, but they're also the biggest solvers and the biggest investors in solving global challenges, said Steyer.
Attendees of US-China Green Energy Summit call for urgent action on climate change
Attendees of US-China Green Energy Summit call for urgent action on climate change
