Meeting the world's energy needs and at the same time reducing emissions of greenhouse gases is one of the grand challenges humans must face in this century. China's situation illustrates the magnitude of the challenge as well as any place in the world. Its economy is growing rapidly, energy shortages abound, and a primary source of energy is coal. This talk reviews China's current and projected future emissions of carbon dioxide, examines alternatives for meeting the combined goals of increasing energy supply and reducing emissions, and describes research underway to provide more options to meet the challenges China faces.

Lynn Orr focuses his research activities on the interactions of fluid phase behavior with multiphase flow in porous media, the design of gas injection processes for enhanced oil recovery, and C0₂ sequestration in subsurface porous media. In August 2005, Dr. Orr and the Global Climate and Energy Project hosted an international conference at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, to explore opportunities for collaborative research to integrate advanced coal technologies with CO₂ capture and storage in China.

This series is co-sponsored with the Center for East Asian Studies at Stanford University.

India is the fourth largest producer of carbon emissions from fossil fuel combustion. At current growth rates, its emissions will surpass those of the US today by 2022. India's carbon emissions growth can be slowed through improving energy efficiency, a better allocation of fossil fuels, and the increased use of renewable energy or natural gas. Many or most of these options are cost-effective from a societal perspective, but require additional capital and foreign exchange, both of which are issues of concern to India. The ongoing liberalization of the Indian economy, and the greater emphasis on controlling local air pollution bodes well for improving energy efficiency, which will slow the growth of greenhouse gas emissions. Dr. Jayant Sathaye is a Senior Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His research subjects are energy and land use change in the developing countries. Over the past decade, the research has focused on the implications of these two factors on greenhouse gas emissions, and the potential for reducing these emissions. The research is supported by several US government agencies and private foundations. Dr. Sathaye also consults with several United Nations organizations, and the World Bank.

The history of Indian power sector is abound with myths like those that envisioned the big projects as "temples of modern India" some fifty years ago, to the recent characterization of the sector as a "millstone" hindering economic development. The dynamics of the sector provides a classic case of the debate on the role of state versus that of the market in developing economies. Lately, economic realism has led to reforms for developing competitive electricity market. Under the changing dynamics, long-term policy needs to be based on some robust insights. In this talk, the speaker will present an analysis of Indian power sector under different scenarios that take into account the "success" of reforms, technology transfer regimes and local and global environmental concerns. Some insights will be offered vis-?-vis the well known debates on fossil energy options (coal versus gas), decentralization versus centralization, renewable and nuclear technologies, and the extent of linkage between local and global environmental policies. Discussion will also address the status of reforms and trends. P.R. Shukla is a Professor with the Public Systems Group at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He obtained Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1979. He has been a consultant to the Government of India and several national and international organizations. He is a leading expert on developing country policy, especially in the areas of energy, environment and technology. He is a lead author of several international reports of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). He is a co-author of eight books and numerous publications in reputed international journals and invited articles in books and proceedings.