Xi said Chinaand the United States have carried out fruitful cooperation under the G20 framework, and the two sides have maintained close coordination and communication with regard to the preparation of the G20 Hangzhou summit.
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Together, the USA and China produce 38 percent of the world’s man-made carbon dioxide emissions.
Speaking at a joint conference with Obama after the agreement Chinese president Xi Jinping said: “Our response to climate change bears on the future of our people and the wellbeing of mankind”.
The Paris Agreement sets a goal for countries to limit temperature increases to “well below 2C” above pre-industrial levels and deliver a net zero emission economy this century.
The Paris Agreement, hammered out in France past year after decades of negotiations and false-starts, laid out a series of provisions to change the way the world uses fossil fuels, and curb the release of greenhouse gases.
Before China and the United States, 23 nations had ratified – including North Korea – but they collectively accounted for just 1.08 percent of global emissions, according to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
It will come into effect 30 days after at least 55 countries, accounting for 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, have ratified it. Obama asked his Chinese counterpart to comply with a ruling by an worldwide tribunal at The Hague that denied China’s historical claims to most of the South China Sea.
“I am committed to ensuring not only that this is a productive meeting, but also that it is setting the steps for the next US administration to come in with the [US-China] relationship on a productive way”, Obama added.
“In particular, the decision to build a new type of major country relations between China and the USA has led to a series of concrete achievements in bilateral ties”, Xi said, without making direct reference to the South China Sea dispute.
A White House spokesman and China’s Foreign Ministry both did not respond immediately to requests for comment. A girl presented Obama with flowers and he shook hands with officials before entering his motorcade.
In an unusually lengthy statement following the meeting, the White House said Obama had “underscored the United States’ unwavering commitment to the security of its treaty allies”. The Chinese official then yelled: “This is our country”.
Both were key to getting an agreement in Paris a year ago.
“Important progress was also made in fighting cyber crimes, coping with the Ebola epidemic in Africa, and facilitating a comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue”, Xinhua cited Xi as saying on U.S.
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Senior adviser to Obama, Brian Deese, said the joint declaration should push other countries to formally join the agreement.
