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Context

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

Details

• 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% of the world’s greenhouse gases.
• The new climate deal represents a rare point of agreement between the US and China.
• The countries agreed to “pursue efforts to triple renewable energy capacity globally by 2030,” with the intention “to accelerate the substitution for coal, oil and gas generation.”
• Both countries anticipate that they will achieve “meaningful absolute power sector emission reduction” this decade.
• Both countries agreed that in their next set of national climate pledges, which are due next year, they would set reduction targets for all greenhouse gas emissions — not just carbon dioxide but also methane, nitrous oxide and other planet-warming gases.

Significance

• This announcement is a major step because China is the world’s largest methane emitter and serious actions to curb this gas is essential for slowing global warming in the near term.

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