After a tense year, the steady defrost in the US-China relationship and the expected face-to-face meeting of President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping next week in San Francisco offers tantalising hope on climate action.
As President Biden said at this year’s United Nations General Assembly, progress on some issues hinges on their common efforts and “nowhere is that more critical than the accelerating climate crisis.”
Much ink has been spilled debating whether the US and China should cooperate or compete on addressing climate change.
These debates obscure a more important question: if revived, what could US-China cooperation on climate actually achieve?
As it turns out — a lot.
On one hand, as all countries work to implement their emissions reduction targets under the Paris Agreement, global climate progress no longer hinges so heavily on US-China cooperation.
But a high-level US-China agreement could provide the much-needed “course correction” to keep world temperatures on track to remain below 1.5C.
And it could also set the stage for a successful outcome at the Cop28, the UN’s largest annual international climate conference taking place the first two weeks of December in Dubai.
Based on what both countries are already prioritising, there is room for significant partnership when it comes to keeping domestic emissions reductions on track, raising ambition in multilateral negotiations, and accelerating climate action in developing countries.
Methane controls
Leaders from both countries have an opportunity to show that climate cooperation between the world’s two largest emitters shouldn’t just mean searching for the lowest common denominator.
To start, China’s recent delivery on its 2021 pledge, made alongside the US, to develop a plan to control methane has helped to restore trust.
Integrating non-CO2 gases into China’s climate targets would further assuage concerns that methane leakage from coal mines and other sectors could undermine action elsewhere.
Likewise, a commitment to limit emissions from burning coal could provide assurance that new coal plants won’t compromise climate targets.
In these areas, the US could lend monitoring and mitigation expertise, including from the development of its updated Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan this year.
Hedging against a Republican administration
From China’s view, the potential for a Republican administration threatens the stability of US action and engagement.
To hedge against this, leaders on both sides could jointly endorse subnational and non-governmental cooperation.
This could pave the way for more partnerships that embed climate cooperation at multiple levels and across sectors, building on California’s recent agreement with a slew of Chinese provinces.
World Bank to initially host loss and damage fund under draft deal
US climate envoy John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua are slated to co-host a local climate action summit during Cop28.
This could provide further opportunities to showcase and institutionalise multi-level cooperation on a global stage.
Unlocking higher global ambition
Finally, US-China cooperation could tackle thorny issues in the UN climate negotiations and unlock greater ambition.
Early, explicit communication of US-China consensus on the structure and ambition of NDC climate plans due in 2025 could lay the foundation for global consensus and position both countries as credible actors.
So too could joint communication of expectations for the new post-2025 goal on climate finance, known as the NCQG.
Doing so before Cop28 could inject important momentum ahead of a major milestone when countries will assess progress and gaps towards global climate goals – much like back in 2015, when the two countries helped lay the groundwork for the Paris Agreement by announcing their climate targets early, and together.
US raising climate finance
Perhaps US climate finance ambition could be the necessary show of goodwill to move talks forward.
This ambition was demonstrated by recent attempts to secure additional funding from Congress, supporting international financial reform at the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in early October, and an unspecified commitment to the Green Climate Fund.
For its part, China has expressed willingness to work with the US on green projects in developing countries.
Cooperation could address gaps by combining both countries’ respective strengths, such as China’s nimble construction capacity and US experience engaging with local stakeholders.
While joint projects may face hurdles, even conducting regular exchanges about shared challenges could improve investment outcomes for all sides – including, crucially, recipient countries – and create a multiplier effect.
None of this will be easy, but it is in both countries’ interests. Institutionalizing climate cooperation could weave a safety net for the US and China in light of other tensions.
New joint action could lend credence to their claims of being cooperative international players on climate – not to mention enabling substantive progress.
Kate Logan is associate director of climate at the Asia Society Policy Institute and a fellow at the institute’s Center for China Analysis.
The post The US and China’s resurgent climate cooperation is a big deal appeared first on Climate Home News.
The US and China’s resurgent climate cooperation is a big deal
Saturday, 17 October 2026
7.18 AM AWST
Hi folks! We’re joining you live from the Rainbow Warrior where we will be providing you with updates as our four activists continue scaling and occupying Woodside’s gas platform. The activists are peacefully protesting against Woodside’s latest gas expansion plans, the Browse project, which would see up to 57 toxic wells drilled at Scott Reef.
“Right now our activists are scaling Woodside’s massive Floating Production Unit. They are scaling the South-East pillar and the underside of the Helideck. They’ll be setting up camp soon and have plenty of provisions with them – so stick around!”
5:45 AM AWST
Our RHIBS are in the water! We’ve deployed our four activists and our ship crew on our small fast boats, headed to the gas platform. We’re carrying crew and equipment, plenty of food, all of our safety climbing gear, some big banners, cameras and a whole lot of heart… someone even has something to read after they get settled in.
5:26 AM AWST
Before sunrise activists prepared to launch RHIBS from the Rainbow Warrior.
Looking for a front seat view?
You can follow along with the Live Rainbow Warrior bow cam here!
Looking for more?
Follow us on Instagram for a peek behind the scenes and hear from our Rainbow Warrior crew.
Live blog: Greenpeace activists occupy Woodside gas project to save Scott Reef
Climate Change
Greenpeace activists climb and occupy Woodside’s Scarborough gas project calling on the Australian government to “Stop Woodside’s Dirty Gas” and “Save Scott Reef”
PERTH, Saturday 17 October 2026 — Four Greenpeace Australia Pacific activists are scaling and occupying a Floating Production Unit at Woodside’s Scarborough gas project off the coast of Western Australia, displaying banners reading: “Stop Woodside’s Dirty Gas. Save Scott Reef.”
- Photos and video available here and here. More will be uploaded throughout the day.
- Content and live updates will be uploaded to a live blog and to Instagram
Early this morning at 05:45 AWST, Greenpeace Australia Pacific activists launched from the Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace’s flagship vessel, scaling and attaching themselves to a Floating Production Unit (FPU), a key piece of gas processing infrastructure at the Scarborough gas field over 200km off the coast of Exmouth.
Woodside has since confirmed it has initiated a temporary shut down of the FPU.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific is occupying the gas platform in peaceful protest of Woodside’s plans to drill for oil and gas at Scott Reef as part of its Browse proposal.
David Ritter, CEO at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “Greenpeace Australia Pacific is taking action today to expose the unacceptable risk to Scott Reef posed by Woodside’s plans.
“Australians love our oceans. Woodside’s reckless Browse gas proposal would turn the magnificent Scott Reef into an industrial gas zone. Woodside wants to drill up to 57 toxic wells around Scott Reef, Australia’s largest oceanic reef, home to nesting green sea turtles, and endangered species like pygmy blue whales and the dusky sea snake; it is a place like nowhere else on Earth.
“Woodside has an alarming track record of oil spills, incidents and environmental neglect, and can’t be trusted with our oceans. From whaling in Albany in the seventies, to Woodside’s threat to Scott Reef today, there’s more than fifty years of history, of Greenpeace taking action off WA’s coasts to protect our oceans.
“There’s no future in new gas projects. Our future is in secure homegrown renewable energy, green industry and exports, where communities and places like Scott Reef are protected — there’s no future in dirty gas shipped offshore.
“The prospect of drilling for oil or gas on the Great Barrier Reef would be considered absolute madness today, but that is exactly the decision before the government: save Scott Reef or risk its destruction at the hands of a gas corporation.”
From aboard the Floating Production Unit, Dr Chris Holden, Greenpeace Australia Pacific activist said: “As a doctor, when I see new fossil fuel projects like Woodside’s Browse project being put forward, I can’t help but think about the impact this is going to have on the health of our communities and planet, and feel a sense of duty to act.
“Not only will this project do irrevocable harm to nature at Scott Reef, it will have a terrible impact on our climate, putting all of our lives at risk.
“On the Rainbow Warrior I’m carrying a copy of the 2025 Lancet countdown report, which warns that health impacts of climate change are worsening, with millions dying needlessly each year due to fossil fuel dependence, growing emissions, and failure to adequately adapt.
“With warnings like this from the leading global health professionals, our government simply can’t allow fossil fuel projects like Woodside’s Browse project to go ahead. It is their duty to do what is in the best interest of our communities.”
Almost half a million people have signed a petition calling on the government to Save Scott Reef and Woodside’s Browse gas project.
-ENDS-
Notes:
- Dial-in, SimSat and Zoom interviews with Geoff Bice, WA Campaign Lead at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, currently aboard the Rainbow Warrior, can be organised separately
Media contact:
Greenpeace Australia Pacific media team on +61 406 231 892 or +61 407 581 404
The board of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) will decide on Thursday on whether to “provisionally set aside” $20 million for Nepal to deal with some of the effects of the climate-driven flood it suffered in August.
The motion, seen by Climate Home News, has been drafted by a group of board members from both developed and developing countries and so is likely to pass easily at the fund’s first-ever extraordinary board meeting on October 22.
It invites the government of Nepal to submit a proposal for how to use the money, with the board then deciding at one of its regular board meetings whether to approve the proposal or not.
While Nepali officials have described $20 million as merely “symbolic” in the face of the $4.8 billion estimated costs of recovery and reconstruction, it would be the first time the new FRLD – agreed in 2022 months after devastating floods in Pakistan – has set aside money for a specific disaster.
Until now the fund has only taken requests through a single call for proposals, launched at COP30 in Belém last November, that gave countries six months to submit requests.
Most of the 180 projects the FRLD is currently considering are designed to help countries avoid damage from future climate disasters, for example by strengthening responses to floods in Bangladesh and Lagos.
The draft decision says Nepal’s proposal will serve as a pilot for how funding requests can be submitted outside of the fund’s current timetable. That could let governments seek funds quickly after a climate disaster strikes, rather than waiting for the next call.
This arrangement would set the fund apart from other United Nations funds designed for climate adaptation or cutting emissions like the Green Climate Fund.
Climate campaigners from Fill the Fund said the draft decision is “a real step forward” as it is “the first time this Fund has moved to respond to a specific disaster”.
Too little, too late
The FRLD was agreed by governments at COP27, set up and operationalised at COP28 in 2023 but has yet to award any money. The 180 funding requests it is currently considering would cost around $2.8 billion, but it only has $350 million to allocate.
The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has described the amount of money available in the fund as “ridiculously small” and Fill the Fund said $20 million “is a meaningful signal but it is a drop against an ocean of need”.
A glacial rock and ice collapse sent a torrent of water and debris through Nepal and the Chinese-administered region of Tibet on August 26. It killed more than 1,400 people, left thousands more missing and destroyed homes, bridges, roads and hydropower plants. Nepal’s finance and environment ministers quickly appealed to the FRLD board for funds, saying that “time is of the essence”.
Their call was followed swiftly by a letter from developing country FRLD board members urging the board’s co-chairs to organise an extraordinary meeting to allocate funds to Nepal.
But developed countries initially called for an informal consultation rather than a full board meeting. It took a further 45 days for the board’s co-chairs to organise an extraordinary board meeting for October 22 and to draft a motion for adoption.
Fill the Fund called for a permanent way of the fund rapid responding to disasters as “Nepal should not have required historic letters, an informal drafting group and the Fund’s first-ever extraordinary meeting simply to unlock an emergency response. The next country cannot wait two months and a bureaucratic marathon. Speed must be built in, not improvised.”
The post UN’s loss and damage fund set to give Nepal $20m for flood recovery appeared first on Climate Home News.
UN’s loss and damage fund set to give Nepal $20m for flood recovery
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Live blog: Greenpeace activists occupy Woodside gas project to save Scott Reef
Greenpeace activists climb and occupy Woodside’s Scarborough gas project calling on the Australian government to “Stop Woodside’s Dirty Gas” and “Save Scott Reef”
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