UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon commended the United States and China at the G20 summit in Brisbane this weekend for their climate change agreement aimed at cutting back greenhouse gas emissions in the next twenty years.

In the agreement forged by President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping, the United States is to cut 26 to 28 percent of its greenhouse gas emission levels.

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China did not set its target levels but set a target date for the emissions to peak, which is 2030. It is the first time that the world's largest polluter has agreed to cut back on carbon emission.

World leaders gathered in Brisbane, Australia for the G20 Summit. G20 is a group of 19 countries, the European Union and representatives of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Topics discussed during the meeting included the Green Climate Fund.

Green Climate Fund was created to contribute to the global efforts by the international community to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change.

Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb infrared radiation, trap heat in the atmosphere and contribute to the greenhouse effect which warms the Earth's surface.

U.S. and China are the world's two largest economies, energy consumers and emitters of greenhouse gases. Combining all these, two countries produce about 45 percent of the world's carbon dioxide.

In a statement attributable to his spokesman, Ki-Moon said that the agreement between U.S. and China gives the world "an unprecedented chance to succeed at reaching a meaningful, universal agreement in 2015."

The Secretary-General was referring to the UN Climate Change Conference that would be held in Paris, France next year.

After the failed 2009 conference in Copenhagen, this agreement between two influential leaders would be a strong foundation for the future discussions on the upcoming conference.

Ki-Moon also urged countries to "follow China and the United States' lead and announce ambitious post-2020 targets as soon as possible."

TagsBarack Obama, G20, Brisbane, Ban Ki Moon