Calling something a ‘win-win’ is one of Beijing’s favorite phrases, and whether it is derided as a slogan for China’s external relations or is explained as a core principle in China’s foreign policy approach, there is no doubt that it is firmly part of Beijing’s official lexicon. Finding situations where everybody wins is not easy, especially at the global level, but with green finance, China has come quite close to the fulfilling the true meaning of the term.

With commitments to clean energy and combatting climate change wavering under the new US administration, leadership in renewable energy is quietly shifting away from the United States across the Pacific, where China is rapidly building its dominance.

When a mine leaks heavy metals into drinking water supply in China, or when school children fall sick due to contaminated soil, or when a factory exceeds its pollution, whose job is it to respond? Kristen McDonald met with grassroots environmental groups around China to understand the challenges communities face, and the help that NGOs provide to local environmental protection bureaus.

Friction between Washington and Beijing may be growing, but the Paris climate change agreement stands out as a powerful example of what can be achieved when the U.S. and China cooperate. In the context of U.S. climate politics, cooperation with China may do little to persuade opponents of climate change policy whose views are rooted in denial of climate change. However, cooperation between the two countries in tandem with the Paris Agreement has engendered a sense among industry leaders that sustained competitiveness must involve adapting to a low carbon economy.

Matthew Johnson discusses the environmental and political implications of the Paris Agreement as it is poised to take effect. Ratification of the Paris Agreement by the U.S. and China signifies an increasingly rare moment of visible cooperation between two environmentally impactful countries. What remains to be seen is how leadership gets allocated in terms of economic benefit and global rule setting.

The 2015 Paris Climate Summit Agreement witnessed a huge and significant step forward in its legal enforcement, on September 3, 2016, following its ratification by China and the United States. Marianne Ojo discusses specifics of the Agreement, and the inspiration China and the U.S. provide for the remaining countries to sign the Agreement—still needing at least 30 more signatures to legally take effect.

On September 3rd, the United States and China formally joined the Paris Agreement, a historic global pact to curb greenhouse gas pollution and build resilience to the damaging effects of climate change.

Progress in China’s shale gas exploration has been non-existent, and in the past three years approximately 4.8 million Chinese have died from air pollution from burning coal. Partnerships with large U.S. oil and gas companies, demonstration projects, and the use of auctions, may not be the answer however; the U.S.’s own shale gas revolution showed that a mass of small, innovative, new companies were its catalyst.

Many of the new climate change-related developments within the Strategic and Economic Dialogue emerged from a summit that brought U.S. and Chinese policymakers and private sector leaders together to establish cooperative relationships. Benjamin Reynolds describes some of the interesting and practical agreements on energy and climate change between private and public sectors, but also reminds us that previous climate accords have always struggled to enforce climate targets that are often conveniently forgotten after big summits.