US and China’s joint climate plan leaves key questions unanswered

The breakthrough has been welcomed by experts - but it lacks specific emissions cuts or a commitment to phase out fossil fuels

The US and China's decision to rekindle a joint effort to tackle the climate crisis has provided sorely needed momentum ahead of crucial UN climate talks later this month, while still leaving some key questions unresolved around calling an end to the fossil fuel era.

The difficult relationship between the world's two largest carbon emitters has somewhat thawed over the issue of global heating, with both sides indicating they see it as a shared menace set aside from other tensions around trade or the status of Taiwan. The US and China are alarmed" by the state of one of the greatest challenges of our time" and will work to resolve it despite other differences, as the countries' joint statement on Tuesday put it.