After many years of U.S.-China collaboration on clean energy and greenhouse gas mitigation, the world’s two largest energy consumers have found themselves at the crossroads and taking different paths. The Trump administration has demonstrated an intent to funnel new policy support toward coal-fired power—which is struggling to compete with low natural gas prices in the United States—and cut back programs that encourage renewables. China, while still expected to lead the world in coal consumption for the foreseeable future, is undergoing a massive transformation in its coal sector that extends from the mines to the power plants. China’s experience suggests that a new U.S. coal boom likely would not produce the benefits the Trump administration is anticipating. At the same time, coal sectors in both countries are transitioning toward new, more efficient technologies that address some of the negative externalities from coal but also bring more automation, which reduces jobs. Potentially cushioning this drop in coal employment are the expanding jobs in solar, wind, and other renewables in the United States that are greater than those for coal, oil, and gas industries combined. Beijing expects to lay off 1.3 million coal workers by 2020, but gain 13 million new renewable energy jobs.

Speakers at this July 12th China Environmental Forum (CEF) event will discuss the massive reforms that are lessening the pollution and carbon emissions from China’s coal-fired power sector and the social and economic challenges China must address as it moves away from fossil fuels.