The United States and China—together responsible for over one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions—had until then been adversaries on climate. China and other developing nations had asked why they should “pay” for all the emissions that the developed nations had been putting into the atmosphere for a century by restraining their own energy use and thus holding back their own development. But in November 2014, standing together in the Great Hall, Barack Obama and Xi Jinping announced a joint commitment that their two countries would adopt significant new measures to reduce emissions. But
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