首届中美气候领导峰会在美举行

China and the US are holding a two-day meeting on the issue of climate change in the US city of Los Angeles. The meeting is the first of its kind at the provincial and city level between the two countries. A series of agreements have been signed by US governors and their Chinese counterparts.

The first US-China climate summit brings world's biggest polluters of greenhouse gas emissions to take action against climate change.

The summit in Los Angeles follows an historic accord between President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping last November that enacts policies to cut emissions significantly.

The accord stipulates that the US will reduce emissions by 28 percent by 2025 and China's emissions will peak by 2030.

But at the summit, leaders of 11 Chinese cities announced plans to reach their emission peak earlier than 2030. Beijing and Guangzhou have committed to peak by 2020.

Collectively, the US and China cities produce 40 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, so what is agreed upon at the summit will make a big difference in the fight against climate change.

The common theme at the summit is that climate change is real and is proven by science, but in the US some are denial, including high level politicians. 

Leaders at the summit emphatically said that kind of ignorance will not be tolerated much longer. California governor Jerry Brown said that is is a dereliction of duty if politicians do not respond to climate change.

China's top climate negotiator said there are climate change denials in China as well, but the majority know that it is real, and they are asking changes to be made sooner than later.