Awaiting confirmation to head the Energy Department, Ernest J. Moniz must balance the desire to develop and extract new sources of energy with the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions and minimize environmental damage. Elizabeth Muller explains the new energy secretary will have the duty of guiding emerging economies like China through the crucial switch from coal to natural gas.

These days China is in the center of any conversation about sustainable development and environmental degradation, writes Tom Watkins. The country has much work to do in order to balance economic growth with environmental sustainability.

Energy has long been both the bane and the favored instrument in the foreign policy of governments. Yet, for the US, fortunes are changing and the goal of former President Nixon’s Project Independence looks soon to be realized.

The development of shale gas technology is expected to rapidly change the global energy landscape, world economy and geopolitics, as we know it. As the United States prepares to become a major exporter of natural gas by 2020, cooperation and mutual trust are vital to ensure stability in the Middle East and beyond.

The shale gas revolution is unfolding, and is expected to have a profound impact on global geopolitics in the coming years, writes Feng Zhaokui.

Severe weather forced China to transform its mode of growth by creating a sustainable economic and energy system conditions.

Following less than productive discussions at the Doha Climate Change Conference, recent reports have warned the Earth’s temperature continues to rise as climate change worsens. While many developed and developing nations continue to face environmental challenges, China has implemented climate change policies that could serve as a model for other nations.

To keep the country growing and provide the lifestyle benefits their citizens are asking for, China’s new leaders must shift the economy toward a new growth model and also get serious about cracking down on pollution.

President Obama became the first president in 22 years to issue a formal order blocking a foreign investment into the United States on national security grounds when he stopped a Chinese company from investing in a small Oregon wind farm. Such actions only reinforce the idea that China faces additional, unfair scrutiny when attempting to invest in the US.

China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) this week offered to buy Canada’s Nexen, Inc., for $15 billion. Nexen’s board is recommending the bid to share