Although his country now leads the world in greenhouse gas emissions, a top Chinese official on Wednesday sought to turn up the heat on the United States for talking a good line on global warming — but not acting. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., responded by preaching cooperation, or what she called ‘co-opetition’ — cooperation in bringing on line some energy technologies, but competition in other fields. She proposed establishing special ‘clean energy free trade zones’ in both China and the United States. Such zones would show how eliminating tariffs would accelerate development and deployment of the latest clean energy technologies. But tough talk came from Xie Zhenhua, a member of the central committee of the Chinese Communist Party and head of China’s Climate Change and Coordinating Committee. ‘China is not a country that does nothing: On the contrary, we have done a lot,’ Xie said Wednesday. He ticked off a list of market-based measures such as financial incentives and taxes used by China to cut emissions. Cantwell and Xie both spoke at a Washington, D.C., symposium sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. ‘The United States is in the same boat,’ Xie […]

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