China and the United States have issued a joint statement on enhancing cooperation to address the climate crisis and they will launch a working group on climate cooperation, the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment announced on Wednesday.

The statement comes after China's special envoy for climate change, Xie Zhenhua, and his U.S. counterpart, John Kerry, met in Beijing from July 16 to 19 and at Sunnylands, California, from November 4 to 7, as reported by the ministry.

In a joint statement published by the ministry and the U.S. State Department, the two governments said they will launch the Working Group on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s. The group will focus on "energy transition, methane, circular economy and resource efficiency, low-carbon and sustainable provinces/states and cities, and deforestation."

They will "deepen policy exchanges on energy-saving and carbon-reducing solutions," and restart "bilateral dialogues on energy policies and strategies."

To reduce methane and other non-CO2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, both sides will "immediately initiate technical working group cooperation."

The two countries remain committed to the 2015 Paris Agreement to keep "the global average temperature increase to well below 2 degrees celsius and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees celsius."

(Cover image via CFP)