The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, and the Beijing Green Finance Association, under the guidance of the Institute of Energy, Environment and Economy at Tsinghua University, convened the second Track II Dialogue on Climate Finance virtually on September 27 and 29, 2022 EDT, a time when official bilateral talks had been suspended by the Chinese government over U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in early August. The dialogue brought together experts from academia, think tanks, business, and industry in both countries for off-the-record discussions on opportunities for bilateral collaboration on financing projects to mitigate and adapt to global climate change.
Climate change is a grave threat to the United States and China, which have a long history of working together to address the issue. In the global effort to mitigate and adapt to climate change, financing the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is a critical area that requires cooperation from key U.S. and Chinese stakeholders. The suspension of official climate talks between the two largest emitters was bad news for climate action and cooperation. Therefore, our track II dialogue provided an important and valuable platform for experts from both countries to exchange ideas. At a time of fraught relations, dialogue participants examined the status of climate finance in the United States and China, climate-related financial disclosures, prospects for increasing the number of policy exchanges and public statements, and the potential for U.S.-China collaboration on climate change projects in third countries, among other topics.