Post date: Feb 15, 2014 2:19:7 PM
United States Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. and China have agreed to work together on climate change.
BEIJING, CHINA (FEBRUARY 15, 2014) (RESTRICTED POOL) - While touring a Beijing engine plant that makes clean diesel motors on Saturday (February 15), U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said China and the United States, the world's top emitters of greenhouse gases, have pledged to work together to reduce the effects of global climate change.
"I'm very pleased to also announce today that the leaders of China have agreed to join us in a mutual effort - China and the United States will put an extra effort into exchanging information and discussing policies that will help both of us to be able to develop and lead on the standards that need to be announced next year for the Global Climate Change Agreement," Kerry told a small audience at a new conference held at the Cummins-Foton factory.A U.S.-China joint statement issued at the end of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's whirlwindBeijing visit lays out the planned agreement in more detail, saying "China and the United States will work together ... to collaborate through enhanced policy dialogue, including the sharing of information regarding their respective post-2020 plans to limit greenhouse gas emissions."
The two sides "commit to devote significant effort and resources to secure concrete results" by the Sixth U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue later this year, the statement added.
"Both sides reaffirm their commitment to contribute significantly to successful 2015 global efforts to meet this challenge," the statement said.
International talks to try to agree on a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the first and only international agreement to tackle climate change, are due to be held in Paris next year. The United States never ratified the Kyoto deal.
A new global pact might include pledges on curbing greenhouse gas emissions and measures to enable the poorest nations to adapt better to climate change.
Kerry welcomed Chinese cooperation. "This is a unique, cooperative effort between China and theUnited States and we have hopes that it will help to set an example for global leadership and global seriousness on the issue of next year's climate negotiation," Kerry told reporters before departing for Jakarta.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in a report last September they were more convinced than ever that humans are the main culprits for global warming, and predicted the impact from greenhouse gas emissions could linger for centuries.