Glasgow, UK - The world’s two biggest emitters must help show the way on climate action, John Kerry said, as the US and China announced joint plans to boost efforts this decade.

The US and China released their "joint Glasgow declaration on enhancing climate action in the 2020s", surprising participants of the climate summit.

US Special Climate Envoy John Kerry said that the "United States and China have no shortage of differences, but on climate, co-operation is the only way to get this job done."

His Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, added: "We will jointly strengthen climate action and cooperation with respect to our national situations and circumstances to accelerate a green and low carbon transition."

Lovely sentiments – but the joint statement lacked notable details on how the two countries would uphold their Paris Agreement goals.

So far, pledges from the US have been weak and non-binding, and China has declined to sign the methane pledge that many countries made in the first week of COP26. It also set a late goal of 2060 for reaching net-zero.

Meanwhile, the finance sector, which needs to make huge changes in investing and money-management to do its part to stop global warming, has fallen short, with current plans to cut only 20% of emissions this decade. That's less than half of the 50% cut recquired.

The climate summit is wrapping up – without any notable progress on key points needed to call COP26 a success.