California-China Climate Institute Chair Jerry Brown Calls on Incoming Administration to “Seize the Moment”

US Must Find Common Pathways for Climate Action with China

November 20, 2020

BERKELEY – Just days after the 2020 U.S. presidential election, former California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr., chair of the California-China Climate Institute, called on the incoming administration to “seize the moment” and find a common pathway for greater climate action and collaboration with China in the new year.

“On every side there's pressure to compete, to vilify, to pull back from any kind of positive cooperation with China – and there’s plenty of arguments and reasons for all of that – but the big overarching fact of life is that we share this atmosphere together, and together we need to make it better,” said Brown in keynote remarks delivered during SupChina’s NEXTChina conference, Election 2020: A New Era in US-China Relations? “We have a window of opportunity and it will be upto us – as well as all the politicians and the powerful people in China – to realize this is a limited time and we've got to seize the moment. And if we do, I think we can handle the problem.”

The two day conference featured U.S.-China experts, observers and researchers from MIT Sloan School of Management, University of Michigan, Georgetown University, Stanford University, Columbia University, UCLA School of Law and Tufts University as well the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Eurasia Group, Environmental Defense Fund and The Nature Conservancy.

The California-China Climate Institute was launched in September 2019 and is a University of California-wide initiative housed jointly at UC Berkeley’s School of Law – through its Center for Law, Energy & the Environment – and the Rausser College of Natural Resources. It is chaired by Brown in partnership with Xie Zhenhua, China’s Special Representative for Climate Change Affairs, and the Institute of Climate Change and Sustainable Development at Tsinghua University – one of China’s preeminent research institutions. The Institute also works closely with other University of California campuses, departments and leaders. Through joint research, training and dialogue, this Institute aims to inform policymakers, foster cooperation and partnership, and drive climate solutions at all levels.

Complete video of Brown's remarks, delivered on November 11, 2020, can be viewed here.