In November 2014, the U.S. and Chinese governments made an historic joint announcement committing their countries to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions. President Obama announced a new target to cut net greenhouse gas emissions 26–28% below 2005 levels by 2025, and President Xi Jinping announced targets to peak China's CO2 emissions around 2030, with the intention to peak earlier and to decrease the share of energy from fossil fuels. The U.S. and China account for over one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, and as the joint announcement demonstrates, cooperative action to address climate change now appears politically feasible. Furthermore, it is hoped that the joint U.S.-China announcement will lead to broader cooperative efforts that will inspire a more effective and ambitious climate agreement at the December 2015 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the parties in Paris.

Energy technological innovation is featured prominently in the U.S.-China joint announcement. The two governments announced six U.S.-China collaborative efforts and a series of domestic measures. Four of the six collaborative efforts are focused on accelerating research and development in low-carbon technologies (the other two are focused on encouraging technology diffusion and best policy practices).

In terms of domestic efforts, the U.S. highlighted its new policies to accelerate the development, demonstration, and deployment of energy technologies, mainly in the form of flexible sectoral policies and technology standards (e.g., for clean power, heavy duty engines and vehicles, and energy efficiency in consumer products). The White House announcement stated that under this new goal, the U.S. will double the pace of CO2 emission reduction from the historic average rate of 1.2% per year between 2005 and 2020 to 2.3–2.8% per year between 2020 and 2025 (The White House, 2014). China announced large investments in the development and deployment of clean energy technologies, with the goal of non-fossil fuels accounting for 20% of primary energy by 2030. According to the statement by The White House, this target for China would require additional clean energy deployment of 800–1,000 GW, which would represent more than China's current coal-fired generation capacity. The centrality of technological innovation in climate change mitigation strategies is not unique to the U.S.-China emissions reduction deal.