"If these two countries cannot find ways to bridge the long-standing divide on this issue, there will literally be no solution," the report said. "That our planet is now approaching a point of no return on the question of global warming is increasingly self-evident."
The document – A Roadmap for US-China Cooperation on Energy and Climate Change – was drawn up in part by Steven Chu, now the US energy secretary.
The world’s two top greenhouse-gas emitting nations must bring their leaders together for a climate summit, the report said, noting that protectionist fears needed to be overcome and clean technology efforts needed to be accelerated. The "roadmap" called for a top-level strategic US partnership with China, to heal long-standing disputes over emissions reductions and funding.
This bilateral effort should precede the UN climate conference in Copenhagen in December, the document said. At that meeting, a new global agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol is to be crafted. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton is scheduled to visit Beijing later this month.
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