US and China make a joint statement on climate change prevention

The United States and China want to fight climate change together, both countries have announced in a joint declaration. The statement comes after a visit by the American climate envoy John Kerry to Shanghai.

The United States and China are determined to work with each other and with other countries to address the climate crisis, with the seriousness and urgency it requires.

Kerry, the former US Secretary of State, was the first official of President Joe Biden’s government to visit China. The joint declaration identifies multiple opportunities for cooperation between the US and China, the two largest economies in the world, which together account for nearly half of the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. Examples include the Paris Climate Agreement and the United Nations Framework Convention.

Biden has made climate a top priority, breaking the policies of his predecessor Donald Trump, who was closely linked to the fossil fuel industry.

The US president has re-signed the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, which Kerry negotiated when he was secretary of State. That treaty obliges countries to take measures to keep the temperature increase at no more than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.