This Obama-Xi joint statement builds on their previous bilateral statement and includes a number of important new areas of action. This includes new fuel efficient standards for heavy-duty vehicles, developing energy efficiency standards for building and cities and further joint work to reduce emissions from methane and HFCs.

In this piece, I focus on a couple of the most significant announcements in terms of the impact on China’s emissions and the UN Paris meeting, namely: China’s announcement that it would launch a national emissions trading system by 2017; China’s decision to “green power dispatch” its energy sources; and the articulation by the U.S. and China of a common vision for the Paris UN climate change conference.

Available at: http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/planetpolicy/posts/2015/09/29-us-china-statement-climate-change-meltzer