US, China invest in climate cooperation before key summit
18 April, 2021
China and america agree that better pledges to fight climate change ought to be introduced before a fresh round of international talks towards the end of the year, both countries said in a joint statement on Sunday (Apr 18).
The statement came after a gathering between Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua and his US counterpart, John Kerry, in Shanghai on Thursday and Friday, China's environment ministry said.
"AMERICA and China are focused on cooperating with one another and with other countries to tackle the climate crisis," their joint statement said. The two countries will continue to discuss "concrete actions in the 2020s to reduce emissions targeted at keeping the Paris Agreement-aligned temperature limit at your fingertips".
Kerry arrived in Shanghai on Wednesday night under tight COVID-19 protocols and was transferred to a secluded hotel not open to the public. He subsequently travelled to Seoul.
His stay in Shanghai was the first high-level visit to China by a Biden administration official because the new president took office, and followed a contentious exchange between officials from both countries in March in Alaska.
The talks also mark a resumption of climate dialogue between your world's two biggest greenhouse gas emitters. Bilateral discussions ground to a halt during the administration of Donald Trump, who withdrew from the 2015 Paris agreement after claiming it unfairly punished US businesses.
AMERICA is expected soon to deliver a new pledge to reduce US greenhouse gas emissions in a bid to regain trust from foreign allies. Biden brought the United States back to the Paris climate accord.
Li Shuo, senior climate adviser for environmentally friendly group Greenpeace, said China could soon react to a fresh US pledge with among its, building on the "momentum" of the Shanghai talks.
"The statement in my view is really as positive as the politics allows: It sends an extremely unequivocal message that upon this particular issue (China and america) will cooperate. Before the meetings in Shanghai this is not a message that we could assume," Li said.
Biden will hold a virtual summit for dozens of world leaders this week to discuss climate change, to be live-streamed for public viewing. Global climate talks are scheduled for Nov 1 to 12 in Glasgow.
The statement said both countries also decided to discuss specific emission reduction actions including energy storage, carbon capture and hydrogen. They said they might take action to increase financing for developing countries to change to low-carbon energy sources.
The Paris agreement encourages countries to submit more ambitious climate pledges if they're able to do so. China has already promised enhanced actions as it tries to meet its goal to be "carbon neutral" by 2060.
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