China’s pledge to cut its carbon intensity by 40-45% by 2020 relative to its 2005 levels raises both the stringency and reliability issues. Moreover, as long as China’s commitments differ in form from that of other major greenhouse gas emitters, China is constantly confronted with both criticism on its carbon intensity commitment being less stringent and the threats of trade measures. Against this background, this talk will map out a realistic roadmap for China’s specific climate commitments towards 2050, with its main distinguishing features including China taking on absolute emission caps around 2030 and the three transitional periods of increasing climate obligations before that. With current international climate negotiations being unable to accommodate the world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters, the talk suggests a new direction to break the current impasse in international climate negotiations.