U.S, China seek to revive climate cooperation
The United States and China will look to revive efforts to combat global warming this week as both countries hold bilateral talks in Beijing.
John Kerry, the U.S. special envoy on climate change, will join his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua in Beijing from July 16-19 for talks that will focus on issues including reducing methane emissions, limiting coal use, curbing deforestation and helping poor countries address climate change.
The talks follow two other high-level U.S. visits to China this year, as the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters work to stabilize a relationship strained by trade disputes, military tensions and accusations of spying.
The pair, who have cultivated a warm relationship over more than two decades of diplomacy, will also likely discuss China’s objections to U.S. tariffs and other restrictions on imports of Chinese solar panel and battery components, observers say.
Observers hope the meeting will raise the bar on ambitions ahead of UN-sponsored climate talks in late 2023.
Washington is seeking to protect U.S. manufacturers from low-cost competitors in China, including those it suspects of using forced labor, which Beijing denies.
“I wouldn’t look for breakthroughs in these meetings but my hope is that they restore normal alignment and diplomacy,” said David Sandalow, director of the US-China program at the Center on Global Energy Policy.
Kerry addressed his objectives for the China trip at a House foreign relations subcommittee hearing on Thursday, saying: “What we’re trying to achieve now is really to establish some stability with the relationship without conceding anything.”
Republicans have accused the Biden administration of being too soft on Beijing in climate diplomacy, arguing that China continues to increase its greenhouse gas emissions while the United States imposes costly measures to clean up.
Kerry is the third U.S. official after Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to visit China this year to try to reestablish a stable bilateral relationship.
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Both countries say they should be able to collaborate on climate change regardless of other disagreements.
Li Shuo from Greenpeace in Beijing said the scheduled talks showed climate change “is still the touchstone for the most important bilateral relationship of the world.”
During Yellen’s visit last month, she made a public push to get China to participate in the UN-run funds to help poorer nations address climate change. China, which considers itself a developing nation, has resisted.
Fang Li, China director at the World Resources Institute, said she also expects the United States to push China to strengthen its national climate pledge under the Paris agreement but may face reluctance from a Chinese side irked by U.S. trade barriers.
