The purpose of this blog is to examine and compare the climate change policies of the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world: The US and China. Ten years ago, many officials in China thought that climate change was a hoax – an invented concept designed by Western countries to undermine the rapid growth of the Chinese economy. Today, China‘s leaders have committed that country to some of the most ambitious carbon-reducing policies in the world. (Unfortunately now it is the US that thinks climate change is a hoax!) To meet those targets, China has become a leader in wind and solar energy, biofuels and public transportation and is the only country in the world that is building an industry of green technology at a scale that could bring down the price of goods like electric vehicles, solar panels, and wind turbines, making them affordable in the developing world. But will these policies — which look good on paper — be implemented satisfactorily?

Lucia Green-Weiskel is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is also the Development and Communications Manager at the Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation, a policy research center based in Beijing, China. She is the co-creator and manager of the Energy and Climate Registry, a greenhouse gas management tool and reporting platform for corporations in China.

Lucia has been interviewed on Democracy Now!, WNYC’ Brian Lehrer show, Doug Henwood’s Behind the News and This American Life. Her writing has appeared in The Nation, Huffington Post, Grist, Alternet, The Brooklyn Rail, Global Politics, Chinadialogue.net, Red Pepper and The New York Times.

She is a member of the National Committee on US-China Relations and a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

She can be reached at lgreen_weiskel (at) gc.cuny.edu

See my CV here: Lucia Green-Weiskel_CV_Sept2014.