Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang issued a joint statement on May 15 pledging that the two countries will work together to develop plans to reduce carbon emissions in a lead up to global negotiations in December. Though no new targets were set, the leaders committed the countries to collaborate on clean energy and energy efficiency technology.

The Chinese government has set quality standards for non-automotive diesel fuels that will go into effect in 2018. The National Development and Reform Commission released information on the standard as part of the continuing challenge of addressing the nation's smog problem.

China is instituting a two-year inspection campaign to curb the submission of fraudulent air monitoring data, which Vice Minister for Environmental Protection Wu Xiaoqing says some local governments have been providing to Beijing. Under the program, the ministry's own monitoring stations will cross-check data from localities. Recent amendments to China's environmental law impose criminal liability for evading pollution monitoring requirements.

China's State Forestry Administration has announced a year-long moratorium on the importation of ivory carvings, a move authorities claim will allow them to evaluate the ban's effectiveness on curbing elephant poaching in Africa. Conservation organizations are less enthusiastic, saying the moratorium will do little to decrease demand for ivory within China. The country's legal domestic trade will not be affected, and critics worry the Chinese government will use the year-long ban to argue that moratoriums do not decrease poaching activities.

China is imposing a complete ban on commercial logging of state-owned forests in its Heilongjiang province, a major timber producer. The government sees the restriction as a trial program to allow the forests to regenerate, while refocusing the timber industry on forest management. Funds have been allocated to support forestry workers for the next 5 years, and programs will encourage them to become forest rangers or take up sustainable agriculture. Observers see the ban as part of China's larger shift from an extraction-heavy economy to one focused more on sustainability.

China's Supreme People's Court, the country's highest tribunal, recently announced new rules aimed at helping environmental organizations bring illegal polluters to court. The rules grant special status to NGOs and government backed social groups, reduce court fees, and allow organizations to sue polluters across China, regardless of where the plaintiff organization is based.

China plans tougher pollution limits and heavier penalties in a revision of its air pollution law, state-run news agency Xinhua said, as the government battles to reduce smog that takes hundreds of thousands of lives each year. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress is considering a draft that would impose fines of up to 1 million yuan ($160,000) or even shut down factories that exceed emission limits, Xinhua reported last Monday.

China continues to make commitments to wide-scale environmental protection as the Ministry of Agriculture announced plans to limit the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Reductions would begin in the coming years with the intent of a nation-wide cap on growth of use by 2020. China produces more rice and wheat than any other country and is also the largest consumer of pesticides in the world. Ministry officials said the country plans to maintain self-sufficiency in production of those crops despite the planned decreases in pesticide and fertilizer application.

Analysis of the energy investments required for China to meet the targets established in the deal reached between the United States and China on November 12 indicates that the country will need 67 times more nuclear energy, 30 times more solar, or 9 times more wind energy than it is projected to have at the end of 2014. This equates to about "1,000 nuclear reactors, 500,000 wind turbines or 50,000 solar farms." These investments are expected to cost $2 trillion.

Researchers for the Climate Action Tracker say that the deal to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions reached between the United States and China—the world’s two largest emitters—on Wednesday, November 12, brings the world closer to limiting rising temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius. This level is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change target for avoiding the worst effects of climate change. Under the deal, the United States has pledged to reduce emissions to about 28% below 2005 levels by 2025, doubling the current pace of emissions reductions.