The United States and China on Monday agreed to cooperate to address climate change. Meanwhile, Beijing also expressed its hopes that the U.S. would help poor countries to combat the issue.

Senior Chinese and U.S. officials shook hands during the Eighth Round of the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues, which started on Monday.

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Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said in a statement that the cooperation between China and the U.S. on climate change demonstrates the possibility of the two countries working together to achieve major targets to benefit each other as well as the whole world.

Wang noted that both sides should follow the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" while working together to tackle climate change.

China has set a target to peak its carbon emissions by 2030. The country also pledged 20 billion yuan to establish a fund to help developing countries tackle climate change.

Wang pointed out that he hopes developed countries will honor their commitment to give $100 billion to developing countries before 2020, establish harmful emission reduction targets and transfer environmentally friendly technology to developing nations.

These hopes were echoed by Xie Zhenhua, the special representative of China on climate change.

"As the largest developed country in the world, the U.S. has done a lot in climate change and needs to be recognized. But at the same time, of course, there [is] a lot more work to do," Xie said during an interview with Bloomberg.

Back in 2010, China and the United States disagreed on how to handle climate change. At the time, Republican politicians opposed the environmental agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol, which was made to reduce fossil fuel pollution.

However, the signing of the Paris deal in April changed things. More than 190 countries (including the U.S. and China), who are signatories to the Paris agreement, have pledged to reduce fossil fuel emissions and take other steps to curb the effects of global warming. This will help the countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change and support efforts to build zero-carbon energy systems.

Tagschina, United States, global warming, Climate Change, Paris deal, the Eighth Round of the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues, U.S., US China climate change, Climate Change