This year's United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland must kick-start a decade of action to address the environmental crisis, U.S. climate change envoy John Kerry said on Tuesday during a visit to European Union headquarters in Brussels.
The price of permits on the European Union carbon market has soared to record levels in the first trading days of the year, hiking costs for polluters as the EU prepares measures to enforce deeper emissions cuts.
Greenhouse gas emissions regulated under Europe's carbon market fell by 9.1% last year from a year earlier, the European Commission said in a report to the European Parliament and Council.
President Xi Jinping's pledge that China will achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 is the most significant climate policy move for years and, if achieved, could curb likely global warming by 0.2-0.3 Celsius this century, researchers said.
The European Union should change the way it hands out free pollution permits in the bloc's carbon market, which is failing to bring about deep cuts in emissions.