BEIJING -- Senior Chinese and US officials on Monday expressed willingness to address climate change together.

The remarks were made in a special joint conference on climate change as part of the Eighth Round of China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogues that kicked off here Monday.

Breakthroughs in negotiations of the historic Paris agreement on climate change, adopted without objection in December, were attributed to effective China-US cooperation, according to Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang.

Successful cooperation between China and the United States on climate change demonstrated that the two countries can win major achievements to benefit both themselves and the whole world, said Wang.

China has set its peak carbon emissions target for around 2030. The country also pledged 20 billion yuan (about 3 billion US dollars) to establish a fund for developing countries to jointly tackle climate change.

Wang said he hopes developed countries will honor their commitments to give 100 billion US dollars to developing countries annually before 2020,realize emission reduction targets, and transfer environmentally friendly technology to developing countries.

China and the United States should expand cooperation on energy conservation and emissions reductions, clean energy, smart power grids, green ports and low-carbon cities, said Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi.

The United States and China should make joint efforts to push the Paris agreement to become effective as early as possible, according to US Secretary of State John Kerry.
Kerry said he expects stronger leadership from the two countries in shifting away from intensive, high-polluting energy consumption.