The US Department of Energy has been working with China to improve energy efficiency in buildings and help China achieve its aggressive goals for renewable energy.

China has a strong national pride, as we saw in the Beijing Olympics. Will Obama's cabinet selection of Stephen Chu make DOE's job easier?

Certainly Chu was not selected for his ethnic background, nor solely to ease relations with his parents' country of origin. The Nobel Prize-winning physicist directs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which researches alternative energy and green building. He supports that work as a way to combat global warming.

China has surpassed the United States to become the world's biggest emitter of CO2. The big question in the next few years is whether China will sign onto a carbon treaty that succeeds the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.

China is very dependent on coal for its electricity, which has been at the root of the country's hesitation to join similar carbon accords. Australia is working with China to deploy so-called "clean coal" technology -- the US, having all but canceled its own FutureGen program to explore the technology, is in no position to help there.