China and the United States Extend Cooperation on Climate Change

On September 25, 2015, Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Barack Obama of the United States reaffirmed their "shared conviction that climate change is one of the greatest threats facing humanity and that their two countries have a critical role to play in addressing it." The Joint Presidential Statement on Climate Change built upon that of November 12, 2014 and contains pledges to cooperate: 1) To produce an ambitious multilateral agreement at the Twenty-First Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris in December 2015; 2) To advance respective domestic actions (detailed in the announcement) to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions; and 3) To enhance bilateral and multilateral cooperation through forums other than the UNFCCC.

Robert Stavins, Director of the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, said that the announcement "…builds upon the very important—indeed historic—statement of goals in November 2014 and presents in considerable detail what China and the United States intend to do both together and separately to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. In particular, China commits to implementing a nationwide emissions-trading program by 2017—building upon the seven cap-and-trade pilot programs in Chinese provinces and cities that have been operating for 2-3 years. This is an ambitious timetable and indicates the seriousness with which China approaches this issue. China has also committed to providing considerable financial support to developing countries to help them address climate change."

The Harvard Project conducted a workshop in June 2015 to examine China-U.S. cooperation on climate change, collaborating with the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, a research institute within the National Development and Reform Commission. Read about the workshop here.