Following a meeting with EU leaders in Brussels during March, US President Obama said that he and EU leaders will throw their combined weight behind tackling climate change. The announcement follows shortly after news of a similar commitment by the US and China.
"Sustainable economic growth will only be possible if we tackle climate change," a draft communique (reported by Reuters) ahead of the EU-US summit on March 26 said. However, the text is subject to further negotiation between the European Union and the United States.
Both the European Union and the United States are preparing new pledges on cutting emissions for the first quarter of 2015, ahead of a U.N. summit in Paris that is meant to agree a new worldwide deal.
China and the United States, the world's top emitters of greenhouse gases, announced in a joint-statment (following Secretary of State John Kerry's visit to Beijiing during February) that they "will work together...to collaborate through enhanced policy dialogue, including the sharing of information regarding their respective post-2020 plans to limit greenhouse gas emissions."
The statement said that "both sides reaffirm their commitment to contribute significantly to successful 2015 global efforts to meet this challenge."
In another development, the UK and China have agreed a new £20m three-year programme that will support research to develop new low carbon manufacturing processes and technologies, low carbon cities and offshore renewables.
Signing a memorandum of understanding at a recent meeting in London, witnessed by the UK's Minister of State for Climate Change, Greg Barker, the UK and China will each commit £10m of matched resources over the course of the programme.
The MoU, which was signed by representatives from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), as part of the Research Councils UK (RCUK) Energy Programme, is the latest collaboration in a series of joint research programmes stretching over the last five years.