WORLDFOCUS

This week, world leaders from almost 200 countries are meeting to discuss the future of our planet. From Tonga and Mauritius to Japan and Brazil, the community of nations hopes to enact lasting change.

Watch all the videos from Worldfocus’ signature series: Green Energy in Denmark.

While a host of difficult decisions often scare business leaders, voters and politicians, global pressure continues to mount. China and India, as well as the U.S. and E.U., have already committed to significant cuts in the release of harmful greenhouse gases.

Will China accept slower economic growth, stricter rules and higher energy costs that could result? While virtually no one in China denies climate change, debate focuses on the speed of the shift to renewable energy.

Joining Martin Savidge from Beijing is Greenpeace China‘s senior campaigner Rashid Kang and from Washington D.C. Julian Wong, senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress.

Windmills in China’s far western Xinjiang provice. Photo: Flickr user gzlu

They explore the following issues:

• how China is greening rapidly and developing many alternative energy programs — from the world’s most efficient coal power plants to vast wind power fields and solar water heating technology
• why nuclear power could be the wrong alternative energy solution for China
• how food security affects China’s alternative energy strategy
• why there are no climate change skeptics in China, but why China can’t go green overnight
• and, the holy grail of renewables — energy storage.

GUESTS:

Rashid Kang is a senior campaigner on climate and energy issues for Greenpeace China. Originally from an overseas Chinese Malaysian family and trained as an engineer, he has worked on development and democratization issues in different parts of Asia over the past 10 years.

Julian L. Wong is a senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, a think tank in Washington, D.C., where he works on climate change, energy and environmental policy. Julian researched clean energy as a Fulbright scholar in Beijing and writes regularly at GreenLeapForward.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Ben Piven and Lisa Biagiotti