Experts said tackling climate change will be one of the major topics in the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's upcoming China visit. China and the United States have great potential in their cooperation.

Common will of cooperation

According to media reports, Clinton and other senior officials in the Obama administration all hope to find new fields of cooperation, in particular, tackling climate change and environmental protection, so as to further promote China-U.S. relations.

"Our mutual economic engagement with China was evident during the economic growth of the past two decades. It is even clearer now in economic hard times and in the array of global challenges we face from nuclear security to climate change to pandemic disease and so much else," said Clinton in her speech at the Asia Society New York Headquarters on Feb. 13.

Zhang Haibin, Director of the Center for International Organizations Studies of Peking University, said that climate change is high on Clinton's agenda of China visit. This shows the United States has stressed this issue and is ready to conduct concrete dialogues on comprehensive cooperation with the involved parties in China.

Luo Yong, Director-general of the Center for Climate Change of the China Meteorological Administration, told Xinhua that the two countries suffer intense severe weather events frequently. Therefore, "the common need to combat climate change can bring about further cooperation".

"Closer cooperation with China should be a high priority in a U.S. climate strategy," said Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, at a press conference held for the release of the report Common Challenge, Collaborative Response. The report maintains that U.S.-China collaboration can help catalyze a new strategic transformation to a global, low-carbon economy that will be more sustainable while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

China's efforts

The Chinese government has attached great importance to the climate change issue and emphasizes global efforts on the issue. It holds that the problems of climate change should be resolved within the framework of sustainable development and in accordance with the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities," which is a core principle of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Both developed and developing countries are obligated to adopt measures to decelerate and adapt to climate change. But the level of their historical responsibilities, level and stage of development, and capabilities and ways of contribution vary.