(The speaker is professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University) 

Another area that is clearly of mutual interest is fighting climate change, decarbonizing our economies, working towards a green recovery, and protecting the natural environment. President Xi's announcement, and then confirm this in the past week in the 14th Five-Year plan and the work report of the government to move to decarbonize the Chinese economy by 2060 is a major step forward for mutual cooperation. I personally believe that China should aim to decarbonize by 2050, because China is so good at the clean technologies that it should accelerate the time table.  

But on the basis of mutual and shared interest in decarbonization, China and the U.S. have a lot to cooperate on in a very practical way. I'm pleased that the U.S. and China will help to lead the G20 process on green financing. This is very practical. It's very important.