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Climate Technology Cooperation and Financing after Paris: The Evolving Role of China and the United States in the Global Arena

With the December 2015 Paris Agreement, the world has a new, unprecedented platform for global climate governance. The United States and China, as the two largest global greenhouse gas emitters, have each taken a leadership role in addressing climate change in their domestic policy agendas. The bilateral relationship between the two countries has increasingly focused on climate change, with the November 2014 joint U.S.-China climate announcement paving the way for global agreement in Paris. China and the United States are the global leaders in clean energy technology investments, and each country has pledged billions for global climate finance. The strength of the bilateral dialogue on climate change makes these two countries uniquely positioned to shape the global conversation on how to move beyond Paris, particularly on the central topics of low carbon technology cooperation and climate-related financing institutions and mechanisms.
The U.S.-China research dialogue on climate change, convened by Dr. Joanna Lewis of Georgetown University in collaboration with Dr. Zhang Xiliang of Tsinghua University, consists of a small group of energy and climate technology and finance experts from the United States and China convening for a series of meetings and producing joint research on the topic of Climate Technology Cooperation and Financing after Paris: The Evolving Role of China and the United States in the Global Arena. The goal of the dialogue is to identify issues of common concern and develop and pursue a shared research agenda that can inform better policy and advance practical cooperation in bilateral and multilateral contexts.

The first dialogue was held at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. from June 28 to 30, 2016.