Political actors have often regarded science diplomacy during the Cold War as a useful way to build bridges at times of tension. As such, the 1972 bilateral agreement between the US and the USSR on environmental protection was considered as successful since it created opportunities for diplomatic dialogue. However, little scholarly attention so far has been given to how diplomats and scientists have responded to the challenge of working collaboratively on fixing global environmental problems while still conceptualizing the world into separate blocks. This paper addresses Soviet perspective of the bilateral scientific exchange within Working Group VIII of the 1972 agreement, that engaged scientists in research on anthropogenic climate change. Specifically, in my paper I will be looking at archival material from Moscow and Geneva as well as at interviews I conducted with former Soviet and US climate scientists, who were involved in the scientific agreement, in order to show how the collaboration challenged, advanced and limited both Soviet climate change research and its scientists between 1974 and 1991. I argue, that although in 1972 global warming was considered a problem only among US scientists and activists, the international collaboration between East and West impacted the Soviet’s political and scientific engagement with anthropogenic climate change since it motivated the Soviet government to establish new institutions and policies as well as new interdisciplinary research networks while at the same time it was only of limited value for the overall scientific knowledge on climate change. By examining the globalization of climate change science during the Cold War, this project sheds new light on how Soviet scientists and politicians responded to environmental challenges that went beyond the borders of the USSR.