The US and China will back a new global renewables target and work together to reduce methane emissions and plastic pollution.

The announcement comes in advance of a meeting between the leaders of the two nations at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit later this week, and the COP28 global climate conference in late November. 

In a joint statement, they declared the climate crisis “one of the greatest challenges of our time” and stressed their commitment to meeting the target established by the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, which aimed to limit the increase of global temperatures to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

To achieve this, the two countries said they would accelerate renewable energy deployment in their economies until the end of 2030 to speed up the substitution for coal, oil and gas and triple renewable energy capacity globally by 2030.

The relaunched working group is also expected to focus on key areas of cooperation, including...