China said on Thursday that climate talks with the United States in California had yielded "positive results" after the world's two largest greenhouse gas emitters met ahead of the Cop28 summit in Dubai.

The negotiations between US climate envoy John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua "ended successfully" on Wednesday, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said.

The two sides "engaged in a comprehensive, in-depth exchange of views and achieved positive results on developing bilateral climate change cooperation and action", it added.

Beijing and Washington agreed to "jointly push for the success of the Cop28 conference", the ministry said.

Countries will gather in the United Arab Emirates at the end of the month for the Cop28 summit, which is aimed at building consensus for limiting global warming.

China – the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter – has pledged to peak emissions of carbon dioxide by 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060.

It has brushed off suggestions by Western diplomats that it could make its targets more ambitious.

The nation’s environment ministry on Tuesday unveiled a broad but vague plan for curbing emissions of methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas. It did not offer a specific target for reducing its emissions. (AFP)