China will announce plans to launch a national system to limit greenhouse gases and force industries to purchase pollution credits on Friday, US officials have said.
Beijing plans to put the system known as cap-and-trade into place in 2017 as part of measures aimed to address climate change in cooperation with the US and others, officials said.
A statement to be released following Friday's summit between President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping aims to flesh out how their two countries plan to achieve targets for cutting emissions set at a bilateral summit in Beijing last year.
Demonstrators with Chinese and United States national flags gather at sunset in Washington Photo: EPA/ERIK S. LESSER
The officials said it was hoped the announcement will give impetus to a broader global treaty on climate change in December.
Mr Obama and Mr Xi are expected to release a joint statement on climate change fleshing out how they plan to achieve targets for cutting carbon emissions set at a bilateral summit in Beijing last year.
Xi Jinping (R) and Barack Obama walk to a private dinner near the White House Photo: Rex
Mr Xi also planned to announce a blueprint for a nationwide cap-and-trade system beginning in 2017, one that would cover highly-polluting sectors ranging from power generation to papermaking.
China will also offer a "very substantial financial commitment" to help poor nations transition to low-pollution technologies, the officials said, without releasing the exact figure.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) and U.S. President Barack Obama (R) during dinner at the Blair House in Washington D.C. Photo: Rex
Climate change is one of the few areas where bilateral cooperation has proceeded smoothly in recent months, largely because Beijing has struggled to contain heavy air, water and soil pollution that has destroyed farmland, sent cancer rates soaring and left its cities cloaked in dense smog.
The progress on China has been offset by disputes over cyberespionage and territorial disputes that have spooked US partners in the region.
"The assumptions that many people had, that cooperation on transnational threats like climate change would ameliorate problems in geopolitical arenas were wrong," said Michael Green, White House Asian affairs director under President George W Bush and current senior vice president at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
US officials have had hope for broader cooperation between Mr Obama and Mr Xi since their unusually informal 2013 summit at the Sunnylands estate in southern California. Last year, the US president travelled to Beijing, and the two leaders strolled in the sprawling gardens next to the Forbidden City and met over a lengthy private dinner where details of the climate change agreement were finalised.
"I think what's been distinct about their relationship, starting at Sunnylands, is far and away the most constructive engagements they've had have been in their private dinners," said Ben Rhodes, Mr Obama's deputy national security adviser.