What climate deal between US and China means for COP28

Easier for other govts to follow if world’s two biggest polluters agree to cut emissions

The United States and China announced an agreement on Tuesday evening to sharply increase clean energy, displace fossil fuels and reduce the emissions that are warming the planet.

The deal comes at a pivotal moment for the United States, the biggest climate polluter in history, and China, currently the largest polluter. Together, they account for 38 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases.

President Biden and President Xi Jinping of China are set to meet today. And in two weeks, representatives from nearly 200 countries will gather in Dubai as part of the United Nations climate talks known as COP28.

The deal between the U.S. and China could deliver a jolt of ambition ahead of the global talks. If the world’s two biggest polluting countries can agree to reduce their fossil fuel emissions, other countries should find it easier to follow suit.

“This definitely puts wind in the sails heading in to COP,” my colleague Lisa Friedman, who has covered climate negotiations between the U.S. and China for years, told me.

Lisa noted that, in the lead-up to COP21, which took place in Paris in 2015, the U.S. and China agreed on a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, using precise language that recognized that each country would have to move at its own pace.