Climate change is a "universal threat" that should be handled separately from broader diplomatic issues, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry told Chinese Vice President Han Zheng on Wednesday after two days of what he called constructive but complex talks.
Acknowledging the diplomatic difficulties between the two sides in recent years, Kerry said climate should be treated as a "free-standing" challenge that requires the collective efforts of the world's largest economies to resolve.
"We have the ability to ... make a difference with respect to climate," he said at a meeting at Beijing's Great Hall of the People, China's sprawling parliament building.
Kerry arrived in Beijing on Sunday as heat waves scorched parts of Europe, Asia and the United States, underscoring the need for governments to take drastic action to reduce carbon emissions, which contribute to global warming and extreme weather events.
He has held meetings with China's top diplomat Wang Yi and Premier Li Qiang as well as veteran climate envoy Xie Zhenhua in a bid to rebuild trust between the two sides ahead of COP28 climate talks in Dubai at the end of the year.
"If we can come together over these next months leading up to COP28, which will be the most important since Paris, we will have an opportunity to be able to make a profound difference on this issue," he told Han.
Han said the two countries had maintained close communication and dialogue on climate since Kerry's appointment as envoy, adding that a joint statement issued by the two sides has sent a "positive signal" to the world.
Kerry told reporters earlier that his talks with Chinese officials this week have been constructive but complicated, with the two sides still dealing with political "externalities", including Taiwan.
"We're just reconnecting," he said. "We're trying to re-establish the process we have worked on for years."
"We're trying to carve out a very clear path to the COP to be able to cooperate and work as we have wanted to with all the externalities," Kerry said.
Climate diplomacy between the world's top two emitters was suspended in August last year following the visit of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, a democratically governed island that China claims.
"The mood is very, very positive," Kerry said ahead of Wednesday's meetings. "We had a terrific dinner last night. We had a lot of back and forth. It's really constructive. We're focused on the substance of what we can really work on and what we can make happen."
© Thomson Reuters 2023.
22 Comments
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Zoroto
I am sure they will listen to Kerry. A man of huge (self) importance.
Eastman
LOL sure they will "take it in their consideration".
stop annoy them with your aggressive politics and talks will go more smoothly,USA bully....
Rodney
So China sells cheap solar panels and USA blows up undersea cables forcing all of Europe to buy its very expensive oil and gas?
Mark
Climate change did not happen in a short time, the damage to the O zone was detected in 1985 and over Antarctica, since then what has the world done??? NOTHING or MINIMAL. Lots of hard work still a head and a good place to start is the oil producing nations and their culprits such as the G7 and the world largest economies.
diagonalslip
Climate change is a "universal threat" that should be handled separately from broader diplomatic issues...... and that's why I'm giving up jetplane travel.....
Raw Beer
Climate has always changed and will continue to change. Whatever humans do will not have any significant effect on climate change, and will only end up financially enriching a select few (e.g. Kerry) at the expense of everyone else (i.e. us).
elephant200
Kerry! Tell your awesome remarks to Donald Trump or the next Republican candidates. It was Donald Trump terminated the climate change treaty and the Republicans cheered that. It was your country put the climate issue becoming a political issue!
Blacklabel
I don’t believe in climate change.
I don’t agree with people who push climate change.
albaleo
Care to elaborate? Are you saying you don't think CO2 is a greenhouse gas or are you saying there isn't any more CO2 in the atmosphere than about 100 years ago?
Blacklabel
It’s just “weather”
. Always had it and always will. Sometimes it’s hot sometimes its cold. Sometimes it rains sometimes it doesn’t. Etc
Randy Johnson
CO2 is necessary to produce oxygen.
Follow the science.
TaiwanIsNotChina
And I'm sure your descendents will appreciate your stunning knowledge when they are forced to fight for food and water.
albaleo
And water is necessary to sustain life. So should we pray for more flooding?
Like many important things, too little and too much can cause problems.
Rather than follow the science, it's probably better to try and understand it. I still struggle.
餓死鬼
Why pay any heed to the extensive and ongoing research and findings of people whom I strongly suspect know what they’re talking about regarding “weather” more than anyone posting their denial on here, the latter having indeterminate levels of expertise in the area of climatology (probably very basic from the kind of reasoning and arguments presented)? And yet some of the deniers readily accept more fantastical claims on the flimsiest (or complete lack) of evidence.
2020hindsights
Blacklabel
That's one approach - put your head in the sand and refuse to be informed.
It's not. Weather is what is happening today. Climate represents long term shifts, in this case average global temperatures, which have been rising.
And every year it is getting hotter.
Blacklabel
Hey what’s the “weather” gonna be like next weekend?
said no one ever, right?
man the weather yesterday was terrible!
never heard these things?
bass4funk
Well, in the US people are allowed to believe whatever they want, a lot of people think the climate change apologist crowd are moronic in their thinking. The earth has been here for over 6 billion years, dinosaurs, survived meteor hits, floods, fires, earthquakes, plagues, and other countless natural disasters and changes, this old planet is tough and resilient, should make some tweaks here and there, I think so, but to go into a max hysterical meltdown mode is just ridiculous to the point that these people are depriving us and making the lives of people globally miserable by denying them various forms of energy to push an unproven theories.
But I digress, you believe what you like and so shall I and I reject these elites, politicians and celebs that are nothing but whacked hypocrites.
EFD
You can believe in the Easter bunny (and by the looks of it some you do).
You don’t get your own set of facts regardless of what Kellyanne Con-job says on Faux. Climate Change is a proven fact. Denial of it is like denying the universal properties of gravity.
bass4funk
And you can believe in 5 years the Earth will be inhabitable you’re right. We believe what we want to believe.
Has nothing to do with FOX, but you of the climate minions don’t have the moral authority to dictate to anyone how to live or what they are allowed to have with their nutty proposals from eleminating fossil fuels to their war on gas stoves, and meat etc.
Just hysterically mind-numbing
Has been for 6 billion years, so what’s your point?
No one is denying it, but seeing the history of this old planet, I’m not sure these pieces of works realize this planet, she’s a lot tougher than she looks.
餓死鬼
It’s not a “by next weekend” thing.
Human activity that is exacerbating climate change hasn’t been around for six billion years.
The planet isn’t going to just crumble like a Malteser if that’s what you mean. However, the environment (of which we are not separate from) and ecosystems are fragile and susceptible to the negative impacts of human activity. Also, fossil fuels are not exactly going to last forever, so we’re going to have to switch to alternatives (probably within your children’s lifetimes) anyway. We’re going to have to do more than just “make some tweaks here and there”.
2020hindsights
Blacklabel
Weather is what is happening today
That all falls under 'today'.