Xi Jinping, Barack Obama vow to work together to implement Paris climate deal

Beijing/Washington: Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Barack Obama on Monday discussed measures to be taken by their countries, the world's two biggest polluters, to effectively implement the Paris climate deal and vowed to work together for addressing global warming.

In a phone call made by Obama, the first after the deal was struck, the two leaders agreed to work with each other and other relevant parties to make sure that the historic climate accord will be effectively implemented.

In the telephone conversation, Xi noted that the Paris deal, which resulted from concerted efforts of the international community, charts a clear course for global cooperation on fighting climate change from 2020.

Xi said China is willing to effectively "expand pragmatic bilateral cooperation" in tackling climate change so as to bring more benefits to the people in China and the US as well as in other parts of the world, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

"China wishes to maintain coordination and cooperation with the US on major global issues," he added. China, the US and other relevant parties maintained close coordination and jointly contributed to the success of the UN climate conference in Paris, Xi said, adding that the Paris meeting marked a new starting point in global response to climate change.

During the talks, Obama applauded the Paris climate deal, saying the United States and China as well as other relevant parties had strengthened coordination and cooperation in their efforts to secure the deal.

The US President also expressed appreciation for the important role China played in securing the climate agreement. The US side stands ready to work with China and other relevant parties to make sure that the deal will go into effect and be implemented, Obama said.

US-China communication and cooperation over climate change have demonstrated that the two countries can conduct constructive cooperation in a wide range of global affairs, Obama said.

In a statement, the White House said, "The two leaders recognised the important contributions of their joint announcement of climate targets in November 2014, their joint statement on climate in September 2015, and the close coordination of their negotiating teams in Paris for securing the agreement."

Obama emphasised the importance of continuing close US-China cooperation on climate change issues into the future.

China and the US, which are the top two emitters, reached an agreement last year under which America intends to achieve an economy-wide target of reducing its emissions by 26-28 per cent below its 2005 level in 2025.

For its part, China committed to achieve the peaking of CO2 emissions around 2030 and to make best efforts to peak early and intends to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 20 per cent by 2030.