The US and China made a rare joint declaration to co-operate on climate change, which the Chinese special envoy to the UN COP26 summit described as an “existential crisis”. In a high-stakes move during the final days of the summit, the Chinese and US climate envoys indicated they had found common ground.

The US-China joint statement sends a political signal to other nations that the world’s two biggest emitters will push for a strong final outcome at the COP, even as negotiators are bogged down in late-night wrangling in the last days of the two-week summit. Key outstanding issues include the rules for a global carbon market, the format for countries to report their emissions, and the level of climate-related financial assistance provided by rich countries to developing countries.

Guest post from Financial Times