John Kerry has said climate change is a “universal threat” and has to be separated from politics during talks between the US and China.
Kerry, the US climate envoy and former secretary of state, is in Beijing for talks with senior Chinese officials. The talks are hoped to repair relations between two sides – the world’s two largest economies and carbon emitters – before the COP28 climate talks in Dubai at the end of the year.
On Wednesday he met with vice-president Han Zheng, saying in public remarks that the two days of talks so far had been constructive but complex.
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 on Saturday as China, parts of Europe, and the US suffered through scorching heatwaves. China, which is extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change, this week recorded all-time high temperatures in some parts of the country. Parts of the north-west exceeded 52 degrees Celsius.
Kerry has met with China’s senior diplomat Wang Yi, premier Li Qiang, and his climate envoy counterpart, Xie Zhenhua.
“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,” Kerry told Han, according to Reuters.
The bilateral talks are the first since Beijing suddenly suspended climate cooperations with Washington last August, in retaliation for a visit by then US Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan. Beijing claims Taiwan is a province of China and casted the visit as provocative.
“We’re just reconnecting,” Kerry told reporters on Wednesday. “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 also made reference to a potential meeting between US president Joe Biden and China’s leader Xi Jinping, on the sidelines of the APEC meeting in November, should Xi attend. On Wednesday Kerry pledged to Han they would work closely with him “to help our presidents be able to produce real results”.
