Cablegate: Secretary of Energy Steven Chu Meets with Zhang Guobao,

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SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OVIP PREL PGOV ECON PARM MARR SENV ENRG KGHG CH

SUBJECT: SECRETARY OF ENERGY STEVEN CHU MEETS WITH ZHANG GUOBAO,
HEAD OF CHINA'S NATIONAL ENERGY ADMINISTRATION IN BEIJING

(U) Sensitive but unclassified. Please handle accordingly.

SUMMARY
-------
1. (U) Upon Secretary Chu's arrival in Beijing, he met with
Minister ZHANG Guobao, head of China's National Energy
Administration (NEA). Zhang informed Secretary Chu that he would be
out of the country during the remainder of the Secretary's visit and
that the NEA Deputy Administrator LIU Qi would be attending planned
meetings in Beijing on Zhang's behalf, also noting that things were
going very smoothly due to good collaboration between his staff and
the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). END SUMMARY.

CLEAN ENERGY COOPERATION
------------------------
2. (SBU) Zhang reviewed the clean energy agreements to be signed
during Secretary Chu's trip and explained NEA's role in the clean
energy research center (CERC), clean coal, energy cooperation
program and renewable energies. He highlighted the
MIT-Tsinghua-Cambridge Low-Carbon Energy University Alliance, the
work Honeywell and PetroChina are doing in biofuels, the First Solar
agreement with the city of Ordos in China's Inner Mongolia province
to build the largest solar farm in the China, and continuing
collaboration on nuclear energy.

3. (SBU) Zhang reviewed Chu's agenda and focused on the Clean Energy
Roundtable, which NEA is hosting, that will include senior
government, industry, non-government, and academic participants. He
said the enthusiasm for this conference is high and in just two
days, NEA has identified 53 participants who all want a speaking
role. Some of the participants include the Presidents of BYD, ENN,
and State Grid companies.

CLEAN ENERGY RESEARCH CENTER A PRIORITY FOR NEA
--------------------------------------------- --
4. (SBU) Zhang then returned to the CERC and made it clear that
this is one of his highest priorities. He described his
interpretation of the CERC protocol management approach and defined
NEA's approach. He reaffirmed that he would be a member of the
Joint Steering Committee, along with Secretary Chu and China's
Science and Technology Minster WAN Gang. He also advocated for a
simple management approach, where the Joint Advisory Group would
report to the Joint Steering Committee members rather than an
executive secretariat and that each side should also identify a
single point of contact to enable smooth communications. Zhang said
GU Jun, the Director General of NEA's International Cooperation
Department, would be his single point of contact.

5. (SBU) Secretary Chu acknowledged the importance of the CERC and
the important responsibilities they have for enabling low carbon
energy programs in their countries. He also agreed to study Zhang's
management approach for the CERC and described the open bidding and

BEIJING 00003188 002 OF 002

information process that DOE would be sending out to enlist
industry, national laboratory and university participation. He
further explained that on the US side, we would provide matching
funds to the projects undertaken.

HUNTSMAN

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