Gina McCarthy will travel to China next week for meetings that could be critical. | John Shinkle/POLITICO EPA head bets on China climate help

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy is optimistic that China will get on board with President Barack Obama’s climate change initiatives, especially as Beijing moves to address its growing health problems and ravenous energy appetite.

McCarthy will travel to China next week for meetings that could be crucial to laying the groundwork for ongoing climate change negotiations between the planet’s two largest CO 2 emitters.


The United Nations climate change meeting in Warsaw last month reached some agreements to help establish broad strokes for cutting emissions on a country-by-country basis, but much more progress will be needed if the goal of replacing the Kyoto protocol with a new pact in 2015 is to be reached.

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EPA is currently drawing up greenhouse gas regulations for new and existing power plants — the largest source of CO 2 in the U.S. The regulations are central to Obama’s climate plan and the administration’s only real hope for driving an international agreement on climate.

“That’s the reason why I am going to China next week,” McCarthy said during a speech at the Center for American Progress on Monday.

The administration faces sharp opposition to its climate change agenda at home, but McCarthy was confident that the U.S. will be able to propel negotiations forward on the international stage. The U.S. is the second biggest greenhouse gas producer in the world — behind China, which overtook the U.S. in 2007.

“It’s a dance, and the music is playing — somebody has to take the first step,” she said.

China’s poor air quality has triggered a backlash from citizens in many of the country’s largest cities, where pollution has worsened as their economies grew.

“China is faced with the challenge of having 1.3 billion people [and] 160 cities that are larger than a million people,” McCarthy said. Between 75 percent and 80 percent of its fossil fuel power comes from coal, she noted — and not just from power plants but also from its large steel industry and other manufacturing sectors.

“So their challenge is broad, and it’s deep in terms of what they’re going to do with their cities,” McCarthy said.

China looks much like the U.S. did a few decades ago, McCarthy said, and could face the same public outcry about pollution that led to massive changes to U.S. pollution control.

“Let’s not forget — we were there not too long ago. Before the EPA and our landmark environmental laws in the U.S., dark blankets of pollution covered our great American cities, not just L.A., but New York City and Pittsburgh,” she said. Monday marked the 43rd anniversary of the establishment of the EPA by President Richard Nixon.

“In China, the public is also crying out for change as the Chinese economy and pollution levels continue to grow,” McCarthy said, adding that the country’s pollution often makes its way to the U.S. coast.

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The trip is McCarthy’s first to China since she became EPA administrator, but she previously traveled to Beijing when she headed the agency’s air office. That visit took place just after the city’s citizens began complaining about information the U.S. was releasing about the city’s air quality.

With EPA support, the U.S. Embassy installed an air quality monitor to monitor pollution for its workers who were concerned about their health and their children’s health. Soon that information hit Twitter, and it became clear that the U.S. monitors were finding pollution levels that were far higher than the city was passing on to its citizens.

It took some time for the dust to settle, but, in the end, EPA and China’s environmental minister developed new methods for communicating as well as channels for sharing technical and legal information about air pollution monitoring.

“Our daily standard for [soot] is 35 micrograms per cubic meter. They have registered as high as 900,” McCarthy said. “So their goals are now to get down to those similar levels which the U.S. and the World Health Organization indicate need to be phased down, but the challenge is enormous. And it’s not just about coal-fired power plants. It’s about the industries and about using as many creative mechanisms as they can, learning from our experience about how to get there.”

While the U.S. has made strides in cutting back conventional air pollutants, it has yet to make headway on carbon restrictions. McCarthy and the Obama administration hope China will tackle both those pollution control issues at once.

“The challenge of carbon is really — long term — to look at how you move away from fossil energy,” McCarthy said Monday.

“I think you’re already seeing very different patterns of living than we ever had before. I think China’s a reflection of that. You’re seeing a middle class bloom in China and, with that, urban dwelling is happening.”