Latest Articles by Ross Perlin

A fresh approach to flying?

Ross Perlin — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 14:53:00 +0000

East Asia's first budget airline may promise a “fresh” way of thinking, says Ross Perlin, but the reality is more stale. Rising greenhouse-gas emissions call for a rethink in the travel industry.

Described as “the world’s first long-haul budget airline”, Oasis Hong Kong Airlines could hardly have come at a better time. Profits are soaring at low-cost European favourites like Ryanair and Easyjet, the Chinese aviation market is just opening up, and demand for flights between Europe and east Asia has never been higher.

Or maybe it could not have come at a worse time. Aviation’s contribution to carbon emissions is more fully appreciated than ever before, the EU has plans to impose emissions controls on all flights under its jurisdiction, and budget airlines have become some of the worst culprits in an aviation boom that seems to fly in the face of the environmental consequences.

Still in its first months of regular service flying from London Gatwick to Hong Kong, Oasis, promising a "fresh approach to flying", has generated an impressive amount of press for its jaw-dropping fares (advertised as £75 [US$147] each way, before tax). The lowest round-trip, all-inclusive fares found by this author came to £261 (US$513), with fares from £300 (US$589) up much more typical. At the same time, low-cost sites like Expedia and Travelocity turned up tickets on major carriers from around £390 (US$766).

And prices are expected to keep falling. If the long-haul budget market even approaches the size of, say, the European market dominated by Ryanair and Easyjet, we can expect people to fly from London to Hong Kong almost as casually as they now fly from London to Berlin.

But at the moment, the euphoria of travellers is still managing to outshine the concerns of environmentalists.

While the ecological impact of Oasis is negligible in comparison to major airlines like British Airways or (Oasis competitor) Cathay Pacific, the new airline’s launch is another indication that the budget airline model is spreading fast and that the number of flights to, from, and within China is growing exponentially.

Ryanair, in particular, has redefined our sense of the possible for budget airlines. The Irish carrier now flies 362 routes to 22 countries, recently reporting €116 million (US$150 million) in net profits this year, and contributing significantly to commercial aviation’s role in carbon-dioxide-caused climate change. There have been few efforts to curb this kind of growth—in fact, the expansion of airports and tax breaks has fueled it.

According to Steve Miller, the airline’s CEO, Oasis has plans to follow the same trajectory, scaling up its model significantly to include destinations in the U.S. and Europe and acquire 25 airplanes.

Unlike Ryanair, whose CEO, Michael O’Leary, recently stormed against the plans of UK climate change minister Ian Pearson, Oasis takes a fairly moderate stance on the environment. Miller told me: “We are very much aware of pollution here in Hong Kong. We do take this very seriously. The most important thing we’re looking at is, just as soon as we can, going into the newest technology of aircraft. We will look at offsetting whatever [carbon emissions] we contribute, and we’ll certainly join any industry-wide initiative.”

Miller, however, did not identify any specific plans to offset the airline’s contribution to climate change. Talking about the airline’s current thinking, he said: “You contribute X amount of carbon and you plant Y trees, and we’re looking at all the options, something which is really meaningful.”

But Richard Dyer, a campaigner on aviation issues for Friends of the Earth, called the coming of long-haul budget travel “a very worrying development.”

“We can expect aviation’s climate changing emissions to grow even faster than they are already,” said Dyer. “There are no technical solutions on the horizon for decades that will radically cut aviation emissions.” So what are the best solutions for combating runaway climate change? Dyer is clear: “Abandoning plans to expand airports and introducing economic measures to manage demand.”

But for every pessimistic environmentalist, there’s an optimistic aviation executive. Steve Miller told me that outbound travel from China is poised to explode, thanks to new-found prosperity: “We are hitting this US$3,500-4,000 GDP per capita level in the Pearl River delta now, so there’s going to be a lot of stimulation [to travel] in those areas. We’re already seeing it.”

Miller said that currently: “60-70% of [Oasis’] traffic originates in the U.K since people in the U.K. are already accustomed to what we’re trying to do.” But that is likely to change soon.

Citing an estimate of some 20 million outbound trips from mainland China at present, Miller called this “the tip of the iceberg.” According to Miller’s figure, less than 2% of China’s population travels abroad each year, but for developed countries, “the generally established figure for outbound travel is 10%.”

Few would deny that increased mobility for people of varying incomes is good in and of itself; the problem is this happening against the backdrop of an airline industry that has yet to face up to its role in carbon emissions and climate change.

Cheap ticket prices are sending people one signal at the same time that concerned scientists and policy makers are trying to send another. According to a recent Oxford University report, for example, airplane emissions already account for 5.5% of total UK carbon emissions – and they are growing fast.

This is the big picture: the ceaseless expansion of airports, a predicted explosion in private aviation, and little political will to treat airlines like other polluters (which is what the new EU regulations would do, oh-so-gradually).

But at the scale of everyday life, the question is what to think about “the fresh approach” of Oasis. What difference would it make to take a stand against budget airlines when there are no “green airlines” to fly with? Is this not a case where governments – or aviation giants like Boeing, Airbus and the engine manufacturers – have to act before ordinary people can reasonably be expected to?

Ross Perlin is a graduate student at London's School of Oriental and African Studies, focusing on the documentation and description of endangered languages.

Xiao Chala: one village and its environment

Ross Perlin — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 12:06:00 +0000

A small village in China's southwest highlights the challenges faced by rural development in the country. Ross Perlin reports.

Perched on a mountain rising on the western side of the Nu River, Xiao Chala is in some ways a typical village, in one of the most remote and impoverished parts of southwest China's Yunnan province. The village of 142 people largely relies on subsistence farming, although there is growing participation in the cash-based economy, and as in much of the country, traditional culture is being eroded by the impacts of media and education.

Its population is mostly Dulong, one of the smallest official ethnic minority groups in China (7,426 according to the 2000 census). The villagers drink from fresh mountain streams and breathe clean air. Close to a third of those in Xiao Chala are Protestant Christians who attend services at the village church.

Xiao Chala’s future is an open question, but it has been spared the fate of some villages in the region, which were entirely displaced by development projects and reforestation plans. Nonetheless, what until recently had been a process of growth driven locally by local needs, is now treated as an international issue, in which various levels of government, NGOs, and the tourism industry all claim a stake.

Living on the land

You don’t stumble upon Xiao Chala. The breathtaking gorge along the Nu River’s upper reaches, which locals claim as the world’s second largest (after Arizona’s Grand Canyon), is traced by this rural region’s only paved road, running along a sensitive border region with Myanmar.

From the road, a few hours’ walk up a steep bridle path brings you to the first signs of settlement, but it is difficult to say when you’ve actually reached the “village”. Xiao Chala is, in reality, a scattering of homes and fields -- some of which are separated from each other by as much as a rugged half-hour walk.

The community sprawls across the mountain; it has evolved without a central focus and without any planning authority. Speak to a Xiao Chala old-timer like Jincai and they will say the community dates to 1953 or 1954, when three families migrated here from the township of Kongdang in the neighbouring Dulong River Valley.

The reason for the move was environmental: devastating floods drove the families in search of a mountain home. With the arrival of other settlers and a birthrate subject to looser restrictions than the Han majority, the population has surged. As a result, says the village head (or cunzhang) with a laugh, the mountain almost feels crowded now.

Nonetheless, almost every household (of which there are now 39) inhabits at least two or three wooden buildings with adjacent fields, and new structures are easily built with pine logs and slate roofing, both found on the mountain itself. A kitchen building centred on a fire pit is where the family gathers, while separate structures, raised slightly from the ground and reached by a ladder, serve for bedrooms. Chicken coops and pig pens are part of the ensemble, with animals ever-present. However, trash is simply left where it is, or thrown haphazardly onto a pile.

Going hi-tech, just a bit

Telephone lines have climbed their way up to the village for a number of years now, though many families had their lines cut for non-payment of bills. More unusual for a mountain village, is the presence of a light-bulb in many rooms, and a TV often placed just opposite the fire pit.

The village’s vice village chief (or fucunzhang), Ahua, says proudly that his was the first home in the village to get electricity, but there still is not enough to run the lights and enjoy CCTV (China's state television network) at the same time. For all of Beijing's plans for rural electrification, and the building of dams to serve that need, Xiao Chala’s power is home-grown.

The power of the Nu River, surging just below, may in the next decade be used to support 13 huge hydroelectric dams, not to mention smaller power stations on its tributaries. But Xiao Chala harnessed the power of a swift mountain stream five years ago; the village gets its power from a basic micro-hydroelectric project that the villagers devised themselves. Another stream powers the village’s communal water-wheel.

Most of the area inhabited by the Dulong people, in the valleys of both the Nu River and Dulong River, is now a national park, with restrictions on development. Beijing’s policy of “stopping farming to let the forest return” was intended to prevent the return of disastrous floods in China’s east, which have been blamed on deforestation upstream.

Forests and opportunities

In the Dulong River Valley, where most Dulong live, the reforestation policy launched in 2003 aimed at 14,000 mu (9.3 square kilometres), when fewer than 15,000 mu (10 square kilometres) were under cultivation. Although farmers are, in effect, paid not to farm (originally 50 yuan for each mu that is reforested), the traditional practice of slash-and-burn agriculture has been called to a halt, and hunting and logging have also been curtailed.

In Xiao Chala, the restrictions seem to be grudgingly accepted. Some of the current terraced agriculture can continue, but is essentially limited to corn, rice, and a few other vegetables. During a recent visit, I found that middle-aged villagers were at home tilling the land, while most young men were on an extended trip in the higher mountains to collect medicinal herbs (such as coptis and fritillary) and sell them in Bingzhongluo, the nearest town.

Supporting government restrictions, but with priorities of their own, are international development agencies, particularly the World Bank and The Nature Conservancy. Since 2000, Shuangla, on the road below Xiao Chala, has been part of a major Global Environmental Facility Trust Fund project to develop a sustainable forestry in southern China.

The Nature Conservancy started a long-term project in the area “to protect this healthy and incredibly valuable ecosystem before it is too late,” focusing particularly on developing reserve management with local authorities. In both cases, communities like Xiao Chala are being asked to rethink how they use their land.

With agriculture, logging, and hunting discouraged or banned outright, villagers seem to be pondering their options. In addition to collecting medicinal herbs (which has a long history in the region), some families have acquired cows to protect their savings. One family in Xiao Chala is making a go of raising fish in a small pond. Playing the China Welfare Lottery (China's national lottery) is tremendously popular too.

For Ana, 25, one of the few villagers to have entered university, the answer is to work in a government bureau in Gongshan, the county capital. She said many of the villagers who receive secondary education will also choose to work and live outside Xiao Chala.

And for those like Andu, 24, who has only three years of primary-school education, finding part-time work away from the village is increasingly important. He had recently returned from 7 months doing road construction across the border in Myanmar. Work in eco-tourism, which is slowly making its way to Bingzhongluo, still seems a remote prospect at present.

A village of only 142 inhabitants can hardly represent all of the varied environmental challenges faced by rural China, but it makes for an interesting point of departure. Xiao Chala feels in some ways like a world unto itself, a quiet vantage point for watching the development of the valley below. But at the same time, villagers increasingly feel their dependence on that world below, and its relentless economic and environmental pressures.

Ross Perlin is completing an MA at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, focused on endangered language preservation in western China. He has written on language and the environment in China and Central Asia.

Can eco-tourism save the Nu River?

Ross Perlin — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 07:50:00 +0000

Parts of southwest China are counting on the promises of tourism to preserve their unique biological riches, writes Ross Perlin. But can this really be achieved before the area is lost to development?

In many parts of China, the development of eco-tourism is one strategy among many, but in Yunnan’s Nu River valley, it is a race against time.

In fact, if tourism based on the area’s outstanding natural beauty fails to increase soon, that natural beauty itself may be exploited to raise people’s living standards. With the decision whether or not to build 13 dams along the Nu River suspended at a critical stage, some locals say that a surge in tourism would support the conservationist case.

Waiting for the invasion

One such local is Yan Fei, manager of the only standard hotel in Bingzhongluo—the town located at what is arguably the river valley’s most breathtaking spot. The Yudong Hotel, built with both Western and Chinese tourists in mind, was finished in 2004.

In that same year, a large and elaborate gate was installed south of town, at the entrance to the nature reserve—both to welcome visitors and to extract a 50 yuan fee (around US$7). The “National Park Center” in Bingzhongluo, an office that provides free information on the area, is just being completed, plank by plank, in a deliberately rustic style copied from the province’s most successful tourist centres like Lijiang and Zhongdian.

But the hotel and the “National Park Center” are almost always empty. Yan Fei shakes his head and says that some weeks he’s lucky to have a single tourist appear for a day. Those who do come admire the area’s beauty, but find it challenging to explore by themselves.

Yan Fei is guardedly optimistic about the completion of the last 70 kilometres of paved road between Bingzhongluo and Lhasa (capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region). He hopes that tourists rushing to meet Tibetans, visit lama temples, and photograph snow-capped mountains will realise that all those things are in Bingzhongluo. “People forget there are Tibetans here, too,” says a Tibetan shopkeeper in this town made up mostly of ethnic Tibetans and people of the Nu minority.

“The Grand Canyon of the east”

Most famously, Bingzhongluo boasts the Nu River Gorge, 320 kilometres long and often dubbed the “Grand Canyon of the east”. In addition, the Gaoligong Mountain State Nature Reserve is a major centre of global biodiversity, with over 6,000 plant species and 25% of all China’s animal species, according to local authorities. The reserve includes the northern reaches of the Nu River, the Dulong River to the west, and the nearly inaccessible mountains that lie between them.

The establishment of the nature reserve dates to 1983, but not until 1998 did logging end with a province-wide ban. Only recently has there been an attempt to bring in the familiar elements of a nature reserve: signs, staff, and education of the local population. Nonetheless, the beauty and integrity of the upper Nu River ecosystem are remarkable—mostly a result of the remoteness and underdevelopment of the region.

Crucial to the new attempts to promote eco-tourism is UNESCO’s 2003 designation of the “Three Parallel Rivers area” as a World Heritage Site, encompassing the Nu River and the two river valleys to the east. Each of these rivers becomes of immense importance for human populations downstream—the Salween (as the Nu River is known further downstream) and the Mekong River in southeast Asia, the Yangtze River in southern China. If the dam project goes ahead, UNESCO’s designation may be withdrawn.

Eco-tourism with Chinese characteristics?

For westerners, much of what is now being called eco-tourism in China would be unrecognisable as such, or at least unfamiliar. For instance, there is a heavy emphasis on striking natural formations, such as rocks or trees that resemble something else (often an animal) or lend themselves to a mythical interpretation.

Some of the popular attractions marketed along the Nu River include “stone moon mountain”, “the flying stone at Pihe River”, and “the pine in the middle in the river”. The stone moon mountain, for example, is a distant moon-shaped hole in a mountain peak, usually viewed from a roadside vantage point where trinket sellers hawk their wares.

China’s tourism boom has brought both domestic and international tourists in greater and greater numbers to the country’s nature preserves, but more remote and rugged destinations like the Nu River Gorge have lagged behind. The karst peaks of Guilin, the panda habitats of the Wolong Nature Reserve and even the sandstone towers of Wulingyuan National Park are all struggling to cope with the onslaught of tourists.

These mainstream destinations, including the tropical jungles of Yunnan’s Xishuangbanna, are accessed with relative ease, lending themselves to the surgically efficient visits of tour groups. But in the Nu River valley joining a package tour may be the only option, since there are virtually no trails designed or maintained with visitors in mind; the Nu River flows too fast and unpredictably for river cruises.

For the moment, tours in the Nu River valley tend to hedge their bets; natural scenery is balanced with the predictable fare of minority tourism. Tours will not offer detailed tree walks, or provide chances to learn about the local orchids and butterflies, as one might find in an eco-tourism destination in, say, Costa Rica. You’re more likely to see a dance performance by a troupe from the Lisu ethnic minority, or make an organised visit to a Lisu home.

Work to be done

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has called the Gaolingong Nature Reserve “one of the world’s biodiversity treasure houses”. And with its Yunnan Great Rivers Project, the US-based Nature Conservancy has committed itself to eco-tourism as a way to conserve and develop the region, in collaboration with the central government. So with players like UNESCO, CAS, the Nature Conservancy and the central government involved, why has the effort stalled so far?

According to one of the young men working at the new National Park Center, locals will eventually learn to cater to eco-tourism as they have learned to cater to minority tourism. However, this probably won’t happen in time to bolster the case against damming the Nu River.

So far, the officials charged with bringing in tourists are the least likely to know the local environment well, and those who know that environment best are least likely to know how to translate their knowledge for the benefit of tourists.

A road to Tibet, a decision on the dams, a critical mass of adventurous Chinese backpackers—Yan Fei is waiting for all these, just as he waits for hotel guests, sitting day after day on the steps of the Yudong Hotel.

“Do you like it here?” I asked the man at the National Park Centre; I wanted to know if he was the kind of nature enthusiast I have often met working in parks in the US and UK.

“It’s work,” he said tonelessly.

Ross Perlin received his master's degree at London's School of Oriental and African Studies, focusing on the documentation and description of endangered languages.

Homepage photo by tangtang

China and California: clean energy comrades

Ross Perlin — Tue, 27 May 2008 07:25:00 +0000

The emerging partnership on clean technology between America’s most populous state and the world’s fastest growing economy is not only urgent, but also proving to be mutually beneficial. Ross Perlin reports from San Francisco.

Last month, clean technology leaders from China and California convened in San Francisco to discuss and launch a range of collaborations on energy and the environment.

It would be hard to think of a more urgent partnership. Accounting for 15% of the world’s energy consumption, China ranks second only to the US, but a projected doubling of consumption over the next decade will put China first. As a leader in clean technologies and environmental policy, California—with one-eighth of the US population and a sizeable chunk of its economy—has shown that economic growth and reducing energy consumption can go hand in hand.

Working relationships

Chinese experts are particularly eager to understand California’s achievements in energy efficiency. A recent project of the California-based China Energy Group, part of the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, shows that good design plays a crucial role.

“We decided to focus attention on the cement manufacturing industry since it's a huge emitter of CO₂ and it's not particularly energy efficient,” said Mark Levine, the China Energy Group’s founder and director. Levine and his team of researchers believe that their program could slash emissions from China's cement industry, the world's largest, by more than half.

The project's centrepiece is a “benchmark tool” which Levine said “allows a cement manufacturer to benchmark his or her plant against best practice in China, best practice worldwide, and also to evaluate ways of improving the performance of the plant.” A second key component was that emissions could be slashed dramatically even before energy issues are addressed by replacing the calcium carbonate used in the manufacturing process.

After establishing a relationship with a key Chinese research and regulatory body—the China Building Materials Academy—Levine's group beta-tested their tool in China last month. “Our next job,” said Levine, “ is to get it widely used in the cement industry, which we think we can do, with a lot of help from the Chinese of course.”

Since the China Energy Group was created in 1988, Levine has collaborated closely with Zhou Dadi, then a young efficiency expert. Zhou’s since become an advisor on energy issues to premier Wen Jiabao and director of the China Energy Research Institute.

As part of the Chinese delegation in San Francisco last month, Zhou outlined his “personal goals” for China's energy use: a 20% decrease in energy intensity from 2005 to 2010; a leading global position on energy efficiency between 2020 and 2030; and a peaking of carbon emissions by 2030. It was Zhou’s influence at the China Energy Research Institute and close ties with premier Wen that helped turn the first of these goals into official policy. If Zhou’s personal goals and high standing are any indication, policymakers in Beijing will be moving more and more aggressively on energy and climate issues.

“We have to do a lot of things on system change,” Zhou said. “The real challenge is in improving building, urban planning, the industrial sector.... We need very good design intelligence.” Zhou also has a strongly-held view that managing Chinese consumption is a major part of the equation—he outlined the importance of “not only personal choice, but social choice” and getting Chinese people to “really understand by study and by scientific analysis that we need another kind of pattern.”

When the green energy conference re-convenes in Shanghai and Beijing this November, its Californian and Chinese organisers expect that a series of distinct projects will emerge. According to Levine, sessions will be “organised into three different areas—Business and Venture Capital, Policy, and Education—and we expect initiatives out of each of these areas, and we even expect initiatives out of the subgroups.”

California’s political will

China’s energy experts are currently partnering with a range of actors from the policy, scientific, and business communities in California with the goal of tackling issues from traffic congestion to solar power to utility regulation. This year’s conferences in San Francisco and Beijing aim to expand these existing partnerships and stimulate new ones.

Frustration with federal inactivity on climate issues has been one motivating factor for Californians to engage their Chinese counterparts. Another is in the very air that Californians breathe, which increasingly bears traces of Chinese pollution wafted over the Pacific. The state has carefully positioned itself as a leader in technological innovation and environmental policy—and boasts an influential and large-scale clean-tech industry.

In 2005, California's governor Arnold Schwarzenegger raised climate and energy concerns during a visit to Beijing. A few months earlier, leaders of California's powerful Public Utilities Commission and Energy Commission, along with the utility Pacific Gas and Electric, had signed a pact with Jiangsu province and an informal agreement with Shanghai's city government to provide training to Chinese regulators and utility companies.

Schwarzenegger remarked that the California-Jiangsu deal could be “the model of US-China energy cooperation in the future”, and Jiangsu has itself been hailed as a model within China by the National Development and Reform Commission.

Some of the lessons from California's experience with energy efficiency could prove beneficial to China, such as the importance of building and appliance standards; a mechanism for making utilities' profitability independent of high energy use, called “decoupling”; and other demand-side management techniques. These tools and others have kept California's per capita energy consumption flat, as that figure has risen across the US over the past 30 years.

Jiang Lin, head of the China Sustainable Energy Program at the Energy Foundation, also highlighted California's broader contributions, including the “development of clean energy policies” and “building local capacity and institutions in China” to implement those policies.

Stepping up

The steps taken by the governor's office create a favorable political climate and carry symbolic significance, but most clean energy alliances involving China and California are the work of NGOs, companies and universities on both sides. If Silicon Valley businesses see big profits in greening China, many of the California-based NGOs and universities are looking for opportunities to expand their international presence. As Levine commented, it can actually be an advantage for his group and others to get away from official memoranda of understanding and down to business: “it's a huge advantage to be dealing with the Chinese government on an informal basis, so we can get things done.”

One such NGO, the new US-China Green Energy Council, was formed this year, with the initial goal of sponsoring and organising the April conference in San Francisco, in co-operation with the Asia Society. One of the council's longer-term aims is to spur investment from California in clean-tech business initiatives in China. According to the Cleantech Group, an organisation that tracks and encourages clean-tech investments, investment in North American clean-tech businesses rose 38% in 2007 to $3.9 billion—nearly half of it to California. So far, Silicon Valley venture capitalists have invested comparatively little in China's clean-tech boom, but Valley insiders indicate they’re starting to gear up.

More academically minded are the efforts of the China Center for Energy and Transportation, based at the University of California at Davis. Aiming to share “Californian experiences” and “new ideas”, the center at Davis has already facilitated exchange between Chinese and Californian researchers on topics such as the potential for car-sharing and hydrogen refueling stations in China.

In another effort, environmental design experts at the University of California, Berkeley, led by professor Harrison Fraker, are working with the Qingdao city government and the Ministry of Construction on “an alternative to the typical superblocks” where most city-dwellers currently live. Fraker said that a collaboration will also begin this year with the architecture program at Shanghai's Tongji University on promoting “transit-oriented development” in China “with a whole systems approach.”

Larger-scale academic exchanges are in the works as well. A proposed “10+10 Program” would formalise and grow academic exchanges between the ten campuses within the University of California (UC) system and 10 universities in China. Research themes around clean energy, climate research, and transportation issues “are definitely important” and will play a role, according to Gretchen Kalonji, the UC system's director of International Strategy Development who is spearheading the effort.

In the non-profit sector, the San Francisco-based Energy Foundation manages the China Sustainable Energy Program, channelling foundation dollars from the US into work on sustainable transportation, renewable energy, green building, and electric utilities initiatives in China. Its director, Jiang Lin, said that the foundation awarded over US$18 million in 2007 alone to “most of China’s leading think-tanks and universities in energy research” and to the “best international energy policy experts around the world.”

Obstacles

The Energy Foundation was set up to address one of the major constraints on the growth of China-California exchanges: money. Implementation is another commonly cited constraint. According to professor Fraker, top-level political will is strong on the Chinese side, but it's “the mid-level bureaucrats [who] are going to be held responsible for making it all work... and they're very risk-averse.”

Energy Foundation’s Jiang Lin pointed to a “lack of skilled technical and policy professionals who can understand policy landscapes in China and California” as a limitation that affects both sides. Levine agreed, citing barriers familiar from other collaborations: “our knowledge of each other, and the technical capabilities that exist on both sides and the ability to figure out how they fit together.”

California's venture capitalists and clean-tech businesses face their own set of challenges in working closely with Chinese counterparts. Scott Sandel, at the Silicon Valley venture firm New Enterprise Associates, echoed a common concern about investing in clean-tech companies whose intellectual property is held in China, where it may not be well protected.

In any case, California may not hold all the answers when it comes to energy consumption. Levine commented that “the whole transportation and land-use planning area” is one where China will have to learn on its own or from other places, avoiding California's pattern of sprawling suburbs based on private automobiles. California's relative lack of heavy industry and generally moderate climate are other factors that may dictate different energy solutions.

Despite such difficulties, the range and impact of the clean energy partnerships between China and California continue to grow. Organisers of next November's clean energy conference in Beijing hope to enhance these efforts with concrete steps in the form of business deals, policy initiatives, and exchange programs. While the immediate prospects remain dim for a much-needed Washington-Beijing joint effort on climate and energy, California and its Chinese partners are moving forward.

Over to you: do you think California is a good model for China on energy issues? Are there better models for China to follow?

Ross Perlin received his master's degree at London's School of Oriental and African Studies, focusing on the documentation and description of endangered languages.

Homepage photo by kevindooley