The Institute of Clean Energy (ICE) recently signed an agreement with University of California, Los Angeles and the China National Climate Change Strategy Research and International Cooperation Center to join the U.S.-China EcoPartnerships Program.

Professor Dongxiao Zhang, director of ICE and executive vice dean of the College of Engineering, signed the agreement with Junfeng Li, director of the China National Climate Change Strategy Research and International Cooperation Center, and Professor Lei He, director of the Research Center for Clean Energy at UCLA.

The signing ceremony was held during the fourth U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing on May 3.  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was in attendance.

The EcoPartnerships Framework is aimed at developing models of mutually beneficial voluntary arrangements between a range of state, local, and private sector organizations to spur innovation, investment, and engagement on clean energy and various environmentalissues.. The framework was signed by the United States and China in December 2008, under the U.S.-China Ten-Year Framework for Cooperation on Energy and Environment (EcoPartnerships Framework) in Beijing.

At the ceremony, five new U.S.-China EcoPartnerships, including PKU-UCLA, were signed. The PKU-UCLA EcoPartnership will enlist a consortium of clean energy and climate change leaders from American and Chinese universities, think tanks and the private sector to conduct joint research on smart grids, intelligent vehicles and electric vehicles.

UCLA and Peking University are spearheading the partnership, along with the China National Climate Change Strategy Research and International Cooperation Center. The consortium is building a joint research laboratory on smart grid technology at Peking University that will serve as a hub for researchers and students, particularly from the U.S., to enable them to better understand China’s energy development environment.

The consortium may also facilitate economic growth and clean job creation in the U.S. by introducing Chinese clean-tech companies to manufacturing opportunities in the U.S.

The other four new EcoPartnerships signed include: City of Portland—City of Kunming, International City/County Management Association (ICMA)—China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL), City of Columbus, Ohio—City of Hefei, Anhui, and The Nature Conservancy’s Great River Partnership—The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture’s Yangtze River Fishery Administration. Eighteeen EcoPartnerships have been selected since 2008. 
 

Hillary Clinton (the 6th from the left in the front row) and Zhenhua Xie (the 5th from the right in the front row) attended the ceremony