China’s long-awaited climate plan gets broad welcome but there are few clues on the extent of post-2030 GHG emissions cuts

China has mapped out how it will try and peak greenhouse emissions by 2030 or before, details that could have a major bearing on UN climate talks aimed at delivering a deal in Paris later this year.

The world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases “will work hard” to peak its CO2 emissions before 2030, Premier Li Keqiang said at a summit meeting with the French government in Paris ahead of the climate plan’s publication in Beijing and submission to the UN’s climate arm.

Climate change and large dam projects are putting natural World Heritage sites at risk, says IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, the official advisory body on nature to UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, meeting this Sunday in Bonn, Germany.

 This year, for the first time in many years, climate change will be brought to the attention of the World Heritage Committee as a major threat affecting World Heritage sites. Climate change impact is already evident in 35 of 228 sites inscribed on the World Heritage list for their natural values, according to the IUCN World Heritage Outlook – the first global assessment of natural World Heritage. Climate change could also become the most widespread threat to World Heritage sites in the future.

On June 23, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew, and Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Vice Premier Wang Yang chaired two high-level events to strengthen joint efforts on climate change: a public dialogue - “Act on Climate:  Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) Celebration of Energy and Environment Cooperation” - moderated by Chairman of the Paulson Institute Hank Paulson; and a private Joint Session on Climate Change.

Additionally, the United States and China demonstrated progress by announcing over 50 outcomes reflecting concrete cooperation on climate change and clean energy, a number of them developed through the U.S.-China Climate Change Working Group (CCWG).  The CCWG was launched by Secretary Kerry and State Councilor Yang in 2013, and it is the premier mechanism for U.S.-China cooperation and dialogue on climate change.