The US and China have resumed cooperation on climate change, including agreeing to push for action on non-CO2 greenhouse gases (GHGs) and the rapid renewable energy deployment at the upcoming UN climate talks.
The countries in a joint statement released on Tuesday outlined a number of areas in which they agreed to collaborate heading into Cop 28 in Dubai later this month, signaling a thaw in their relations, at least on climate change. The statement follows a meeting last week between US climate envoy John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, in California.
Among the top issues, the US and China agreed to back a goal of tripling renewable energy deployment by 2030, one of the main priorities of Sultan al-Jaber, president-designate of Cop 28.
They also said they "intend to sufficiently accelerate renewable energy deployment in their respective economies through 2030 from 2020 levels so as to accelerate the substitution for coal, oil and gas generation."
Also notable, the countries agreed to work together on reducing non-CO2 GHGs. China has been under pressure from the US and other countries to reduce emissions of methane and other non-CO2 gases. As part of the new cooperation, the US and China said they will host a summit on non-CO2 gases at Cop 28.
China earlier this month released a plan that calls for improving methane emissions control through 2025 and significantly improve from 2026-2030. It also says that China will gradually establish methane control policies and eliminate flaring from oil and gas extraction by 2030.
The agreement does not say whether China, the world's leading emitter, will join the US-led Global Methane Pledge. But both countries said they agree that their updated nationally determined contributions (NDCs), or emissions pledges, "will be economy-wide, include all greenhouse gases, and reflect the reductions aligned with" the Paris climate agreements goal of limiting the increase in global temperatures to "well below" 2°C, and preferably to 1.5°C.
"Methane has been notably absent from China's previous commitment under the Paris agreement," World Resources Institute international climate director David Waskow said. "This announcement is a major step because China is the world's largest methane emitter and serious actions to curb this gas is essential for slowing global warming in the near-term."
The statement also says the countries will resume or start a number of previously agreed to bilateral discussions on climate-related issues, after China earlier this year suspended talks on climate with the US, amid trade and national security disputes. This includes a working group that will "engage in dialogue and cooperation to accelerate concrete climate actions in the 2020s. The group had been an element of a previous agreement the two reached at Cop 26 in Glasgow in 2021.
