BEIJING, China (AP) — China and the United States will launch a working group on climate cooperation, both countries said Wednesday, as both sides work to deepen communications and resolve fractured ties at a leaders’ meeting in San Francisco only to be repaired a few hours away.

Xi Jinping and Joe Biden will meet for the first time in a year on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in California, as trade tensions, sanctions and the Taiwan issue have fueled disputes between Washington and Beijing.

Climate has long been seen as an area where the two can find common ground. U.S. and Chinese climate envoys John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua met Nov. 4-7 at the Sunnylands Retreat in California to resume stalled cooperation.

In a joint statement published in Chinese state media and released by the US State Department following those meetings, the two governments said the group would focus on “energy transition, methane, circular economy and resource efficiency, low-carbon and sustainable provinces/states, etc. “Focus on cities and deforestation”.

The statement said they are “engaging in dialogue and collaboration to accelerate concrete climate action.”

The two sides agreed to “work together and with other parties” to “address one of the greatest challenges of our time for present and future generations of humanity,” their statement said.

They also promised to resume “bilateral dialogues on energy policies and strategies” and “deepen political exchanges on energy-saving and carbon-reducing solutions.”

The United States and China will also “immediately initiate technical working group cooperation” to reduce methane, of which China is the world’s largest emitter.

Beijing last week unveiled a comprehensive plan to control its gas emissions, but gave no specific target for reducing them.

However, in their joint statement, both sides agreed to “develop their respective methane reduction measures/targets” for inclusion in their 2035 emissions reduction plans, called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

They also reaffirmed the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement to limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius and pursue efforts to limit the rise to 1.5 degrees.

NO DECOUPLING

The countries will meet in Dubai later in November for the COP28 summit.

With temperatures rising and 2023 expected to be the warmest year in human history, the pressure on world leaders to curb planet-heating greenhouse gas pollution has never been more urgent, scientists say .

And the success of this summit will depend on agreement between the United States and China, the world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters.

Asked what he expected from the talks with Xi, Biden described Tuesday’s meeting as a chance to repair relations that have faltered in recent years.

“We are not trying to decouple from China. We’re trying to change the relationship for the better,” Biden told reporters at the White House before leaving for San Francisco.

He said he wanted to “return to a normal course of correspondence; being able to pick up the phone and talk to each other when there is a crisis; be able to ensure that ours.” [militaries] still have contact with each other.”