Jon Blumenauer meets Chinese President Hu Jintao in BeijingIn May I had the privilege of traveling to China with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. The delegation met with top Chinese leaders, including President Hu Jintao, to discuss the global environmental crisis and how our two countries can work together to solve it.

The trip included stops in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. The itinerary in Beijing included individual meetings with the top three Chinese officials: President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and Wu Bangguo, the Chairman of the National People’s Congress.

The lineup of meetings was remarkable considering that Speaker Pelosi has been referred to as “the most hated person in China” due to her strong stands against Chinese abuse of human rights, and the fact that the express purpose of the delegation was to address the environmental crisis – an area where China has been resistant to outside pressure.

Many Americans associate China with rampant air and water pollution, where the focus on economic growth trumps any concerns about the environment or health of its citizens. There is truth to this view. The skies of major cities are constantly shrouded in smog, which kills 600,000 Chinese per year. China had been building an average of one coal-fired power plant per week. Pollution from dust storms affects US populations as far away as Colorado.

However, the Chinese are doing a great deal to address environmental problems – in fact, their targets are much stronger than U.S. initiatives. Their energy efficiency targets are the most aggressive in the world, targeting a 20% reduction in energy per unit of output in the 2006-10 five-year plan. China targets of 15% its energy coming from renewables by 2020. Cars are required to get an average of 36 miles per gallon – already significantly higher than the U.S. standard, and during our visit, the government announced a plan to require an 18% improvement to the current standard by 2015.

While China is not always meeting its targets, leaders appear to be serious about environmental improvement. And they will need to be. In absolute terms, Chinese emissions are now on par with the U.S. However, as each Chinese official we met pointed out, on a per capita basis China emissions are still a small fraction of those in America, and much of their emissions are to produce goods that Americans consume. But that is changing rapidly.

Only about a third of the 1.3 billion Chinese live in urbanized areas, which use more energy. The urbanization process is continuing, and Chinese cities are developing at a rapid pace – the country now has nearly 200 cities with populations of 1 million or more. Construction of these new urban areas is highly energy intensive, but perhaps more importantly, it is done largely without integrating environmental sustainability into the planning process. China adds ten million new cars to its roads each year – equal to the new fleet in the US, and growing at a faster rate. And environmental problems lead to tens of thousands of protests per year.

Still, the delegation came away impressed with what we saw in China. We rode on the fastest passenger train in the world. The trip from Beijing to Tianjin 75 miles away was completed in less than 30 minutes aboard a train that maxed out at over 200 miles an hour. We toured an electric car factory, which was located next to a Vestas plant manufacturing wind turbines. And China is already the largest producer of solar panels in the world.

I believe the trip was successful in pounding home the newfound U.S. commitment to environmental improvement. The delegation sought to bring China to the table to discuss commitments at the next round of international negotiations in Copenhagen later this year. Chinese leaders were resistant to any binding reductions, but the feeling is that if the U.S. makes meaningful commitments at Copenhagen, China and other countries will also take action. If not, we will have lost a critical opportunity. Congressional approval of the Waxman-Markey bill is a very important first step, but we have much work to do in the coming months prior to Copenhagen.

For more on the visit, click here.

Click here to read the warning from Jeff Immelt and John Doerr that China is ahead of the U.S. on green technology innovation.