The China-U.S. Climate Agreement: By the Numbers

The United States and China have announced new climate targets to align with the European Union as the world's top three emitters. The U.S. aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025, which would require doubling annual reduction rates. China intends to peak carbon dioxide emissions around 2030 and increase non-fossil fuel energy consumption to around 20 percent by 2030. Both countries' targets represent a deviation from business-as-usual trajectories, though achieving a long-term 2-degree-C trajectory will require more aggressive policies, such as carbon pricing and stronger regulation of power plants.

• The United States has set a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025. Achieving this would mean U.S. emissions in 2025 are lower than any level seen in over 40 years and would require increasing annual GHG reductions from 1.2 percent (2005-2020) to between 2.3 and 2.8 percent for the 2020-2025 period.
• China intends to peak its carbon dioxide emissions around 2030, with an effort to peak earlier. Additionally, China aims to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in its primary energy consumption to approximately 20 percent by 2030.
• Both the U.S. and China must implement more aggressive policies to meet their targets and support a global 2-degree-C limit. For the U.S., this involves the President’s Climate Action Plan and standards for existing power plants. For China, scenarios for peaking by 2030 assume near-term actions, such as the implementation of a carbon tax in 2015.

APA

World Resources Institute (2014). The China-U.S. Climate Agreement: By the Numbers. https://www.wri.org/insights/china-us-climate-agreement-numbers

Chicago

World Resources Institute. The China-U.S. Climate Agreement: By the Numbers. 2014. https://www.wri.org/insights/china-us-climate-agreement-numbers.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=The China-U.S. Climate Agreement: By the Numbers |date=20 November 2014 |url=https://www.wri.org/insights/china-us-climate-agreement-numbers |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitute2014chinaus, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{The China-U.S. Climate Agreement: By the Numbers}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2014}, month = nov, url = {https://www.wri.org/insights/china-us-climate-agreement-numbers}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }