U.S. envoy Kerry starts climate talks in China
15 April, 2021
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry met along with his Chinese counterparts in Shanghai on Thursday, in the first visit to China by the official from a Biden administration seeking to re-establish America's leadership on the surroundings.
The trip sometimes appears as an opportunity to put aside high political tensions -- carrying out a heated initial meeting last month between diplomats in the U.S. -- and focus on areas of potential climate collaboration.
The two sides clashed in Alaska over accusations about China's policies in Hong Kong and its treatment of Uighurs in the northwestern Xinjiang region, criticisms China rejects as interference in its domestic affairs.
In Shanghai, officials are expected to go over environmental challenges, areas which both China and the U.S. say are top priorities, and also the upcoming U.N.-led climate foretells be held in Glasgow at the end of the year.
President Joe Biden has made scuttling the climate-sceptic policy of his predecessor Donald Trump a priority.
He has rejoined the 2015 Paris accord, and is hosting a virtual summit of world leaders in a few days that your U.S. hopes will cause stronger climate pledges.
China's leader Xi Jinping is yet to verify if he'll attend the summit.
The U.S. consulate said Kerry found its way to China and will talk with his Chinese counterparts at a Shanghai hotel in a day of closed-door talks.
"At this time understanding each others' expectations and ambition levels, and agreeing how to use those commitments to move the international climate negotiations forward would already be an important first rung on the ladder," Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air told AFP.
China, the world's biggest polluter, announced an ambitious target to be carbon-neutral by 2060, but analysts have warned high reliance on coal and modest short-term targets could scupper the ambition.
As Trump turned from the national climate agenda, Xi made bold promises to cut emissions.
China "now shouldered the duty of global climate governance" and will not be part of a U.S.-centered climate campaign, the nationalistic Global Times cited specialists saying Thursday.
Biden has yet to announce any new targets beneath the Paris agreement.
"Both countries have quite a distance to go to set their targets and commitments for this decade," said Myllyvirta.
No global solution on climate change is probable without both the US and China up to speed, because the world's top two economies together take into account nearly half of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions.
Li Shuo from Greenpeace China said he hoped the talks might yield agreements on China's huge utilization of polluting coal.
"China is the most significant coal consumer, it really is still building coal-fired power plants, both domestically and along the Belt and Road region," he told AFP, discussing China's sprawling international infrastructure plan.
"There should be a reverse on that. In conditions of potential outcomes, that might be top on my list."
While Beijing and Washington have clashed over Hong Kong and Xinjiang, the climate issue sometimes appears as a shared interest which cuts through the rancor.
Source: japantoday.com