Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter recently led a UC Davis delegation to China to further the university’s commitment to working with that country and others to develop low-carbon transportation strategies.

Yunshi Wang, director of the China Center for Energy and Transportation, a unit of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis, accompanied the provost, first to Beijing and then to Xian City.

The Beijing Central Business District hosted the World Business District Network Summit, where Hexter delivered a keynote address at the opening ceremony. His international audience included ambassadors and business executives, along with the vice chairman of the China Political Consultative Committee, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Commerce and the vice mayor of Beijing, among other high-level Chinese officials.

The World Business District Network promotes sustainability in the development of business districts like Beijing’s. UC Davis’ China Center for Energy and Transportation has prepared a draft Electric Vehicle Deployment Plan for the Beijing Central Business District, and Hexter and Wang presented the proposal to a Beijing official for review.

In his keynote address, Hexter shared the California experience in achieving sustainable low-carbon development. The state is responsible for only 6.7 percent of electricity consumption in the United States, even while accounting for 13 percent of the gross national product.

In other words, per capita, Californians use only 50 percent of the electricity of the average American.

Hexter also cited the state’s new zero emission vehicle guidelines under which the world’s largest automakers must build a total of 7,500 electric and hydrogen fuel-cell cars, along with nearly 60,000 plug-in hybrids, from 2012 to 2014.

In addition, under Assembly Bill 1493 — approved in 2002 — California requires a 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from new vehicles by 2016. Thirteen other states have since committed to adopting this standard.

Hexter also noted the state’s low-carbon fuel standards — issued last year, the first such standards anywhere in the world to regulate the carbon intensity of transportation fuels — requiring fuel suppliers to achieve a 10 percent reduction in carbon content by 2020.

The provost highlighted the Institute of Transportation Studies’ role in all of the state regulations, and made sure that the audience knew that UC Davis ranks No. 1 in the nation in scholarly publications on the environment and natural resources.

In Xian City, Hexter and Wang visited Chang’an University, where the provost endorsed an agreement of cooperation between the Institute of Transportation Studies and Chang’an’s School of Automobile. Wang said the new agreement lays the foundation for further exchange of scholars and students, and for joint research projects in China.

On the Web

ITS China Center for Energy and Transportation

Beijing CBD Business Festival cum World Business District Network Summit