Fertile ground for Sino-US cooperation

For years, I have worked with international teams of colleagues to study how much heat is accumulating in the world's oceans. From my office at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, I collaborate with scientists whose institutions are thousands of miles away. My colleagues work in Europe, Asia, South America, and elsewhere, and many of my team members are Chinese.

International collaboration is essential in science — we share our resources and our ideas. Our work depends on sharing measurements, comparing methods and questioning one another's conclusions.

Those relationships have helped us better understand a changing planet. They also give me a practical reason to believe that climate cooperation between China and the United States can continue.

The need is clear in the measurements. In research published this year, our international team found that heat stored in the upper 2,000 meters of the ocean reached another record in 2025.

The accumulation of heat below the ocean surface reveals the continuing energy imbalance of our planet.

Ocean warming has consequences far beyond the shoreline. Warmer water expands, contributing to rising seas. Ocean heat can fuel powerful hurricanes and typhoons, while a warmer atmosphere can carry more moisture and produce heavier rainfall.

The effects of any particular storm depend on many factors, including preparedness and where people build. But global warming increases the risks that communities must manage.

For China and the United States, cooperation is therefore a matter of protecting their own citizens as well as meeting a shared global responsibility. Both countries have communities exposed to coastal flooding, damaging heat and disruptions to water supplies and agriculture.

Both have scientists and engineers capable of helping reduce those risks. Neither can secure a stable climate through domestic action alone.

Emissions released in one country affect people elsewhere, and knowledge developed in one laboratory can help communities around the world.

Climate science is an obvious place to strengthen cooperation. Understanding the ocean requires observations across enormous distances and through great depths.

No individual research group can collect everything it needs. China and the United States should support sustained ocean monitoring, preserve access to scientific data and make it easier for researchers to compare results.

Reliable measurements are a public resource, and maintaining them should be a durable commitment.

My own experience shows why this matters. Collaborating with scientists such as Dr. Lijing Cheng has allowed us to bring different expertise to the same questions about ocean warming. Confidence in a result grows when researchers examine the evidence independently and understand why their estimates agree or differ.

That process requires openness and the freedom to challenge conclusions. Governments should protect the conditions that make such work possible, even when relations are difficult in other areas.

Clean energy offers another practical opportunity. Alongside my academic work, I direct solar research at a company with headquarters in the US.

My company deploys solar power around the world, especially in the developing world. Engineering requires attention to whether a technology can be manufactured, installed, maintained and afforded by those who need it. A promising laboratory result is only the beginning. Cooperation could help researchers and companies address shared problems such as improving energy storage, integrating solar and wind power into electricity grids and making buildings and industrial processes more efficient.

Useful collaboration does not require agreement on every trade issue. It does require clearly defined projects, fair treatment of participants and protection of intellectual property.

Joint testing methods, openly published research and demonstrations with measurable results would provide concrete places to start.

The goal should be reliable, affordable systems that reduce emissions.

Progress should be judged by performance, including how technologies work outside the laboratory and under demanding conditions.

Emissions measurement deserves similar attention. China and the US could work together to improve methods for detecting methane leaks and verifying reductions, while sharing experience with energy efficiency.

Transparent accounting would help distinguish announced ambitions from actual progress.

Cooperation should support stronger action within each country, with results that others can evaluate. Neither country should make its own efforts conditional on the other moving first.

Adaptation is equally urgent. Communities need help preparing for warming that is already affecting them. Researchers and local authorities could exchange lessons on flood forecasting, heat warnings, resilient infrastructure and protecting electricity supplies during extreme weather.

Such work should include the people expected to use the information. A forecast becomes valuable when it reaches someone in time and helps them take effective action.

Joint efforts should also support other countries, with priorities set by local communities and resources for training and maintenance.

The US and China do not need to agree on every issue. Countries always have their own goals and interests.

But if we can focus more on our shared areas of concern, we can help each other and create a "win-win" situation. We can do more together, and should pull in the same direction where possible.

As a professor, I think about the world my students will inherit and the problems they will be asked to solve. As a scientist, I see evidence of continuing warming.

As an engineer, I see opportunities to reduce the damage. China and the US should give their researchers and practitioners the opportunity to pursue those solutions together.

The value of that cooperation will be measured in better information, lower emissions and communities better prepared for the changes ahead.

The author is a professor of thermal sciences at the School of Engineering, University of St. Thomas, the United States.

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