The US and China, the world's two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, Saturday announced they were joining forces to share more information on trying to combat climate change.

In a joint statement announced as US Secretary of State John Kerry wrapped up a two-day visit to Beijing, both countries said that they would work together "to collaborate through enhanced policy dialogue, including the sharing of information regarding their respective post-2020 plans to limit greenhouse gas emissions".

The two sides have also reached an agreement on implementing five initiatives launched under a joint climate change working group, the statement said.

Those initiatives include emission reductions from heavy duty and other vehicles; smart grids; carbon capture utilisation and storage; collecting and managing greenhouse gas emissions data; and energy efficiency in buildings and industry.

China's cities are often hit by heavy pollution, blamed on coal-burning by power stations and industry, as well as vehicle use, and it has become a major source of discontent with the ruling Communist Party.

Authorities have become more open about pollution levels, in part as a response to public pressure, but officials have implied that it will take years before the situation improves.

The pollution has been linked to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths, and has tarnished the image of Chinese cities including Beijing, which saw a 10 percent drop in tourist visits during the first 11 months of 2013.

After touring a factory which is a joint US-Sino venture making clean diesel engines for heavy vehicles, Kerry said the two countries were to try to pool their efforts.

"The leaders of China have agreed to join us," he told workers at the spanking new Cummins-Foton factory, which is set to go into production in April.

"China and the United States will put an extra effort into exchanging information and discussing policies that will help both of us to be able to develop and lead on the standards that need to be announced next year for the global climate change agreement," Kerry said.

"This is a unique cooperative effort" between the two countries, he said, adding he hoped it would set "the standard for global seriousness" to fight climate change.

Indiana-based Cummins has joined with China's Foton to build the $350 million dollar plant on the edge of Beijing, which will initially produce some 60,000 of the new clean engines a year.

When the second phase comes online next year, it is expected to double production of the engines, which will meet new emissions standards set to be adopted soon by Beijing.

Climate change is set to be the main theme of the next stop of Kerry's Asia tour as he arrives in Jakarta later Saturday.

In their joint statement Saturday, both sides said that they recognise the need for action "in light of the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change and its worsening impacts, and the related issue of air pollution from burning fossil fuels".

The agreement includes the sharing of information regarding the plans of the US and China to limit greenhouse gas emissions post-2020, the statement said.

Obama proposes $1 billion climate protection fund
Fresno, United States (AFP) Feb 15, 2014 - President Barack Obama proposed Friday a $1 billion fund to mitigate the impact of climate change in the United States, and unveiled financing to combat drought parching swathes of California.

The president landed in the Central Valley area and met farmers who have lost livestock and seen once fertile lands wither through lack of water.

"The budget that I send to Congress next month will include $1 billion in new funding for new technologies to help communities prepare for a changing climate," Obama said.

The president also noted that the snowpack in California mountains -- which he overflew in Air Force One was less extensive than normal -- compounding water scarcity.

"As anybody in this state could tell you, California's living through some of its driest years in a century. Right now, almost 99 percent of California is drier than normal," Obama said.

It is unclear whether the fund has much prospect of advancing past Republicans on Capitol Hill, where skepticism of the science of global warming and Obama's wider political agenda runs deep.

White House spokesman Jay Carney argued earlier that climate change was already having a demonstrable impact on the American climate.

"We've always had heatwaves, but now the worst ones are longer, and they're hotter," Carney said.

"We've always had droughts, but the worst ones are getting longer and drier.

"We've always had severe storms, but instead of 100-year storms that happen once in a hundred years, we're having 100-year storms that happen every other year or every five years."

The new Climate Resilience Fund is intended to finance research into better understanding of projected impacts of climate change and how to better protect communities and infrastructure.

It is also designed to help vulnerable communities plan and prepare for the impacts of climate change and to encourage local measures to reduce future risk and to fund new resilient technologies and infrastructure to combat a warming climate.

The drought emergency has sparked wildfires and prompted Governor Jerry Brown to ask Californians to cut their water use by 20 percent.

Obama pledged to implement $100 million in livestock disaster assistance for California producers contained in a recently passed agriculture bill.

He highlighted $15 million in conservation funding for extreme drought areas in California, Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

A further $5 million will be provided for emergency watershed protection for California, among other measures that also include a mandate for federal facilities to use less water.