Washington and Beijing need more time to “break new ground” on combating global warming, US climate envoy John Kerry said, following three days of talks in Beijing.

“We’re not finished finding the pathway with clarity on both sides that will allow us to achieve what we need to achieve,” Kerry said at a press conference Wednesday.

Kerry added that China and the US had nonetheless committed to intensive work in the weeks ahead. Talks will proceed on an “accelerated” schedule, Kerry said, with initial conversations focused on integrating renewable power and better addressing methane and other greenhouse gas emissions, beyond carbon dioxide. “We both agreed to continue this bilateral effort,” Kerry said.

The meetings between Kerry and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua this week provided a critical opportunity to reset bilateral relations on the issue nearly a year after then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to Taiwan scuttled plans for a retreat, a working group and other collaboration on stemming planet-warming pollution.

Kerry maintained that negotiations between the world’s two biggest polluters were “frank” and “constructive.” And he stressed that negotiators did not want to put out a joint statement that wouldn’t “result in significant action.”

Still, the lack of a grand declaration is a disappointment to advocates who insist US-China collaboration is essential to advancing global progress on the issue. Even as talks were ongoing in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed that the nation will not let outsiders dictate its carbon-cutting path.

China remains committed to goals of peaking greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade and hitting net zero by 2060, yet the country’s approach, method, pace and intensity in achieving those targets “must be determined by ourselves, and will never be influenced by others,” Xi said Tuesday at a national environmental conference, according to state broadcaster China Central Television.

(Updates throughout with more context from press conference.)

Author: Jennifer A. Dlouhy