This impact paper presents the Track-2-Dialogue (T2D), established in 2020, is led by the Chinese National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation (NCSC) and the German Environment Agency (UBA), and supported by GIZ projects. The dialogue informs the official (track-1) diplomatic exchange between ministries and provides a platform for an open technical exchange. Resulting from the dialogue the Chinese and German experts issued joint publications and held UNFCCC COP side-events.