Following more than a year of legislative toing and froing, California’s leaders agreed this week on how ambitious the state will be in the fight against climate change after 2020. The legislation will require Californian agencies take steps needed to reduce greenhouse gas pollution by 40 percent in 2030, compared with 1990 levels.

California lawmakers cast key votes Tuesday for ambitious climate pollution reduction goals after 2020 — shortly before learning that an auction held under a program designed to help achieve those goals had flopped, hinting at major challenges ahead.

The EPA and the U.S. Transportation Department on Tuesday issued regulations that require trucks become more efficient through 2027. The final rules achieve 10 percent more carbon emission and fuel-consumption reductions than last year’s proposed rules, likely raising the price tag price for such vehicles but cutting operating costs.

California companies that refine gas, make cheese and build satellites may face bigger bills in the state’s underperforming cap-and-trade market very soon. But their counterparts that extract oil from the earth, turn wood into paper or produce fertilizer are in line for a longer cap-and-trade honeymoon.

A major player in California’s electricity system has opened its arms to the concept of using batteries — whether mounted on a garage wall or inside an electric vehicle — and other small-scale technology to help the grid.

The experts the Chinese government relies upon to advise on energy planning say the world’s largest emitter is on track to stop growing its greenhouse gas output as much as a decade earlier than promised. Jiang Kejun, a lead researcher at the Beijing-based Energy Research Institute, said China would “for sure” outperform its Paris pledge to peak emissions by 2030.

On July 7th, the Chinese government endorsed a set of policies aimed at peaking greenhouse gas emissions by 2029 — at no additional costs. Energy Innovation’s Energy Policy Simulator measured the combined effects of 35 climate, energy, and environmental policies across more than 10,000 scenarios.

China could speed up its climate plans to peak carbon dioxide emissions in six years, under proposals presented to policymakers this week. Two Beijing-based government advisory groups – the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation and the Energy Research Institute – drew up an “accelerated low carbon scenario” with American consultancy Energy Innovation.

China, a country known for its smoggy skies and hazardous environmental conditions has rapidly become the global leader in developing and implementing renewable energy technologies on a mass scale. The country’s central government understands that there is a problem that needs to be fixed as fast as possible

Carbon pricing is China’s best bet to cut emissions and by strengthening the proposed emissions trading scheme the country could see its GHG output peak sooner, according to a group of think-tanks.