FOR YEARS, CHINA and the US have kept each other locked in a regulatory stalemate over climate change. As political rivals, neither one of the world’s biggest carbon emitters was going to budge unless it was sure any action it took to curb carbon dioxide emissions wouldn’t let the other run away with the world’s economy. Then, within 60 days of each other, Presidents Obama and Xi Jinping each released detailed plans to curb coal power plants. Has the world gone completely sane?

President Xi Jinping announced his country’s commitment to cutting emissions from the White House on September 24, the same day Pope Francis lectured Congress on how climate change is affecting the world’s poor. None of this is accidental. These two superpowers likely hope their combined barking will herd the rest of the world into a global emissions agreement at the upcoming United Nations climate talks, to be held in Paris starting at the end of November.

It’s been a long time coming. Past attempts at global emissions agreements have failed because neither the US or China (or any other emitters) wants to be left holding a bag full of economy-wilting regulations. But the effects of climate change are beginning to overshadow the benefits of ignoring it, so last year the pair bilaterally announced that they would curb emissions.