Australia-China Ministerial Dialogue on Climate Change

Today I co-chaired the sixth Australia-China Ministerial Dialogue on Climate Change in Beijing with National Development and Reform Commission Vice Chairman Xie Zhenhua.

The dialogue is an effective mechanism for deepening mutual understanding and guiding bilateral cooperation on climate change.

As the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter China's climate change efforts are critical to effective international action. China is also Australia's number one trading partner so understanding China's efforts to reduce emissions helps Australia strike the right balance between safeguarding economic growth and climate change action.

Australia is taking significant action on climate change through the $2.55 billion Emissions Reduction Fund and our bipartisan commitment to an emissions target of 5 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020.

Vice-Chairman Xie Zhenhua and I discussed the actions that will need to be taken to achieve progress at the upcoming Lima Climate Change Conference, and in the year ahead, to deliver a realistic and meaningful agreement at the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris.

We also discussed ways in which Australia could offer its advanced expertise in measuring and reporting emissions to help China track its emissions more clearly.

We agreed Australia's and China's efforts to enhance the emissions efficiency of coal should be an ongoing priority.