BEIJING: US climate envoy John Kerry will head to China on Sunday (Jul 16) to meet with his counterpart Xie Zhenhua and restart stalled talks between the world’s two biggest emitters of planet-warming gases.
Kerry’s trip to China – his third as President Joe Biden’s climate emissary – follows weeks of record-setting summer heat that scientists say is being exacerbated by climate change.
Bilateral climate talks stalled last year after Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the US House of Representatives, visited Taiwan and infuriated Beijing, which considers the island its territory.
But Kerry, a former secretary of state, has enjoyed comparatively cordial and consistent relations with China despite Washington and Beijing locking horns over Taiwan and a number of other thorny issues, including advanced semiconductors.
His trip to Beijing also comes after two other high-profile visits by US officials – first Secretary of State Antony Blinken, then Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen – aimed at stabilising US-China ties.
Kerry was scheduled to depart for China on Saturday, according to the US State Department.
The Biden administration has identified climate as an area for potential cooperation with Beijing, despite the tensions elsewhere.
The restart of US-China climate talks will come on the heels of the hottest week on record globally, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
June was already the hottest ever logged, according to US and European agencies.
Kerry will aim to use his time in Beijing to engage with Chinese officials “with respect to increasing implementation and ambition and promoting a successful COP28”, the State Department said, referring to the UN climate talks in November.
Nearly 200 nations will gather in the United Arab Emirates for COP28 to thrash out ways to mitigate global warming and its impacts.
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