On December 8, 2023, Energy Foundation China (EF China) hosted the China-U.S. Track II Dialogue: Enhancing the Implementation of the Sunnylands Statement (Subnational and Other Issues) in Dubai, as part of the EF China COP28 Pavilion themed “Enhancing Ambition Through Implementation.” Focusing on the significance of China-U.S. climate cooperation to the decarbonization of the two countries and the world, participants of this meeting discussed how the top two emitters can work together to synergize, inter alia, climate mitigation, air quality improvement, and economic growth; to identify potential cooperation opportunities and challenges at the national and subnational levels; and to better implement last month’s U.S.-China Sunnylands Statement on Enhancing Cooperation to Address the Climate Crisis.

This meeting brought together over 30 guests, including government officials of China and the U.S. at the national, subnational, and local levels, as well as representatives from the civil society, think tanks, enterprises, and international philanthropies. Zou Ji, CEO and President of EF China; Reed Schuler, Managing Director for Implementation and Ambition and Senior Advisor to Special Envoy for Climate at the U.S. Department of State; Levin Zhu, Visiting Professor of Management Practice at Tsinghua University and former President and CEO of China International Capital Corporation; Tang Jiafu, Deputy Director of Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment; Shen Xin, Director-General of the Department of American Affairs at the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries; and Aniruddha Dasgupta, President and CEO of the World Resources Institute, gave opening remarks. David Vance Wagner, Vice President for Strategic Partnerships at EF China, moderated the meeting,. Jonathan Pershing, Program Director of Environment at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and former Special Envoy for Climate Change at the U.S. Department of State, delivered closing remarks.

The participants agreed that China-U.S. climate cooperation is the key to realizing global climate goals and aligns with the interests of both countries and the world. The recent Sunnylands Statement between the two countries is not just important for China and the U.S., but also creates a positive momentum for multi-lateral cooperation around the world, they said. Climate collaboration between the two countries—based on a stable bilateral relationship—can also nurture this critical relationship, the participants said. By virtue of research, investment, and dialogue, the cooperation between China and the U.S. at the subnational and local levels can help spread decarbonization technologies, industries, and policies, speed up technology upgrades, lower transition costs, and therefore plays a vital role in advancing the low carbon transition in both countries and the world, they argued.

Chinese representatives shared their decarbonization efforts in areas such as clean energy development, CCUS, circular economy, transportation electrification, green buildings, and infrastructure. They also introduced the transition stories and international cooperation programs in Shanghai, Suzhou, Shanxi, and Beijing. American representatives introduced their climate actions and plans at the national, subnational, and local levels, including exploring market incentives, business models, and the private sector’s role in local energy transition and climate efforts and sharing experience related to fuel substitution and just transition. Experts of both sides believed that subnational cooperation between the two countries in implementing the Sunnylands Statement may start from pilot programs, then nurture more collaboration, and build on subnational experiences to go farther with this bottom-up approach.

The experts suggested taking the opportunity of the historic Sunnylands Statement and using this meeting as a starting point for more climate dialogue and cooperation between subnational governments, think tanks, universities, industries, and enterprises of the two countries; for engaging each other in renewable energy, electric vehicles, air pollution control, and other areas; and for putting in place regular subnational communication and collaboration mechanisms—all the efforts that they said would help advance subnational cooperation as specified in the Sunnylands Statement and hence facilitate the implementation of the Paris Agreement.