U.S. and China plan to take over the world?

Business leaders from China and the U.S. plan have been collaborating for about six months on a plan that would push the two countries in the forefront of adopting clean technologies, according to a report today in The Guardian newspaper.

An announcement about the plan is expected to come this week at the World Economic Forum in Dalian. The effort has included executives from Boeing, General Electric, Suntech, and BYD.

According to the Guardian: "Under the plan, cash from the two nations and private sector acumen would be used to massively expand China's solar, wind, carbon capture and smart-grid markets in a move that could be as groundbreaking as the commercialization of the Internet."

The technologies would look to make use of the coal dependence of the two countries be investigating coal gasification and carbon capture and storage. China’s biggest electric utility China Huaneng Group  built China’s first carbon dioxide capturing demonstration facility and has a carbon dioxide capturing facility under construction at one of its coal-fired power plants in Shanghai, expected to capture carbon for $40 per metric ton, compared to $100 at a similar facility in the U.S.

Last month, the utility signed a deal with Charlotte, N.C.-based Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) to collaborate on technologies (see Duke Energy, China’s top utility ink deal to hunt for cleantech investments).

Britain is also trying to get in on the action. Today, the UK's Carbon Trust launched a £10 million low-carbon technology investment joint venture to help British firms develop clean technologies in China, according to the Guardian.

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