Smart Cities Trade Mission to China Announced

While everyone is focused on the climate agreement between the US and China, there’s much more to the accord, such as  encouraging bilateral trade in green technologies and the launch of a Climate-Smart/Low-Carbon Cities Initiative.

To that end, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz announced they will lead a trade mission to China in April.

With a focus Smart Cities technologies, the goal is to promote US business products and services that will help China meet its carbon reduction targets and increase renewable energy.

25 senior executives will join them to launch or increase their business in China in areas like green buildings, energy retrofits, green data centers, carbon capture, clean air and water technologies, waste treatment technologies, smart grid and green transportation.

"In response to growing urbanization and increasingly significant greenhouse gas emissions from cities and recognizing the potential for local leaders to undertake significant climate action, the United States and China will establish a new initiative on Climate-Smart/Low-Carbon Cities," the document says.

They are also planning a Climate-Smart/ Low-Carbon Cities Summit where leading cities from both countries will share best practices and set new goals. 

Japan and India are also moving forward on Smart Cities. Read our article, New York Developing Smart City Hub For Next-Generation Technologies.

The US/China climate announcement says: 

Technological innovation is essential for reducing the cost of current mitigation technologies, leading to the invention and dissemination of new zero and low-carbon technologies and enhancing the capacity of countries to reduce their emissions. The United States and China are two of the world’s largest investors in clean energy and already have a robust program of energy technology cooperation. The two sides have, among other things:

• established the U.S.-China Climate Change Working Group, which includes initiatives on forests, vehicles, energy efficiency, industrial boilers; smart grids, carbon capture, use and storage and greenhouse gas data management
• agreed to work together towards the global phase down of HFCs, very potent greenhouse gases
• created the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center to facilitate collaboration on carbon capture and storage technologies, energy efficiency in buildings, and clean vehicles; and agreed on a joint peer review of fossil fuel subsidies under the G-20.

Contact the Department of Commerce, Office of Business Liaison (202) 482-1360 or BusinessLiaison@doc.gov for more information, or complete an online application here, if your business would like to participate: