China’s Environmental Challenges and U.S. Responses
The United States and China face myriad challenges related to the environment, from protecting air and water at home to global action to address climate change. As representatives of both governments meet in advance of the United Nations Climate Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, this hearing will explore timely issues related to:
--China's climate commitments and compliance, reliance on coal, shift toward greater renewable energy production, and export of carbon-intensive energy sources through the Belt and Road Initiative.
--The role of civil society, including environmental nongovernmental organizations, researchers, and advocates and how they operate to influence policies and enforcement of laws and regulations;
--Environmental challenges facing Tibet, including grassland management, ecological migration and displacement and the downstream effects on other countries of Chinese dam projects; and,
--Labor and environmental practices in Chinese energy markets.
The archived hearing video can be viewed on the CECC’s YouTube Channel.
Opening Statements
Senator Jeff Merkley (Chair)
Reprentative James P. McGovern (CoChair)
Witnesses
Dr. Jennifer Turner, Director of the China Environment Forum at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
[testimony]
Dr. Jessica Teets, Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at Middlebury College and the author of Civil Society Under Authoritarianianism: The China Model.
[testimony]
Dr. Emily Yeh, Professor of Geography at the University of Colorado. She is the author of Taming Tibet: Landscape Transformation and the Gift of Chinese Development.
[testimony]
Nyrola Elimä, a supply chain analyst and coauthor of a recent study, from the Helena Kennedy Centre’s Forced Labour Lab at Sheffield Hallam University, on the scope of forced labor in the solar supply chain in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
[testimony]
SUBMITTED TESTIMONY
International Campaign for Tibet
[testimony]