China and US vow climate change commitment

China and the US have pledged that they are committed to working together and with other countries on dealing with climate change.

A joint statement on Sunday mentioned that both agreed on further specific actions to lessen emissions.

The move comes after several Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua and his US counterpart John Kerry in Shanghai met several times last week.

US President Joe Biden is hosting a virtual summit on climate change this week. But it is not confirmed if Chinese President Xi Jinping will join the event.

The statement reads, “The United States and China are committed to cooperating with each other and with other countries to tackle the climate crisis, which must be addressed with the seriousness and urgency that it demands.”

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The statement added that both nations will continue to discuss “concrete actions in the 2020s to reduce emissions aimed at keeping the Paris Agreement-aligned temperature limit within reach”.

Both China and the US also agreed to assist developing countries to finance a switch to low-carbon energy.

Li Shuo, the senior climate adviser for environmental group Greenpeace, called the statement positive. He told an international news agency, “It sends a very unequivocal message that on this particular issue (China and the United States) will cooperate. Before the meetings in Shanghai, this was not a message that we could assume.”