Japan is likely to face increased pressure to step up its efforts to combat climate change when U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, a strong advocate of multilateral action to curb global warming, takes office in January.

Biden has vowed to "use every tool of American foreign policy to push the rest of the world to raise their (climate) ambitions alongside the United States," a sign that he may call for deeper cuts in carbon emissions by China, Japan and other major polluters.

In their first telephone talks Thursday, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Biden affirmed that their nations will coordinate closely in combating global warming, Suga said.