A deal between China and the United States to combat global warming is "heartening" although it falls short of the action needed to avert the worst impacts, Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said on Wednesday.

 

China promised that 2030 would be peak year for its soaring greenhouse gas emissions, the first time it has set a maximum, and the United States said it would cut emissions by more than a quarter from 2005 levels by 2025.

 

The accord by the two, by far the biggest greenhouse gas emitters, is largely symbolic. But it erodes a divide between rich and poor nations over their respective responsibilities for tackling climate change that has prevented a global deal for years.

 

"This is a good beginning and I hope the global community follows this lead and maybe builds on it," said Pachauri.

 

He acknowledged that the deal fell far short of a road map toward zero net emissions by 2100 that an IPCC report on November 2 indicated was needed to avert the worst.

 

The United Nations welcomed the pact as a spur to almost 200 nations which have agreed to work out a U.N. climate accord at a summit in Paris in late 2015.