US climate envoy John Kerry met with China’s Vice President Han Zheng on his final day of talks in Beijing, after President Xi Jinping warned the nation won’t have its path to curb emissions dictated by others.
Kerry has called for fresh cooperation between the world’s top two polluters since arriving Sunday. He’s also raised concerns China is continuing to add more coal-fired power — the largest single source of emissions — even as it breaks records for the adoption of renewable energy.
China remains committed to its goal to peak emissions by the end of the decade and to hit net zero by 2060, though “the path, method, pace and intensity to achieve this goal should and must be determined by ourselves, and will never be influenced by others,” Xi said Tuesday at a national conference on environmental protection, according to state broadcaster China Central Television.
The Chinese leader has stressed the need to ensure China has a stable and increasingly self-sufficient energy system, as the country also gradually reduces its reliance on fossil fuels.
Read More: Xi Says China to Decide Its Own Path to Reduce Carbon Emissions
Kerry is the third senior US government figure to visit Beijing in five weeks, holding the first face-to-face climate negotiations with China since discussions on global warming were suspended last year. The US envoy met Tuesday with Premier Li Qiang, though has not been hosted by Xi, who last month had talks with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“Over the course of the last few years the relationship between the United States and China has faced complications,” Kerry said, as he opened talks Wednesday with Han.
“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 said, referring to the United Nations climate summit which begins November in Dubai.
The US-China joint Glasgow declaration in 2021 on climate cooperation had “sent a positive signal” and collaboration between the nations had facilitated successful outcomes at the COP26 and COP27 global climate talks, Han told Kerry.
Han, a former member of Xi’s top decision-making body, was appointed as vice president earlier this year and is seen as taking a role on foreign policy and international economic issues.
“We are just reconnecting,” Kerry said earlier Wednesday, acknowledging that many “external” factors had complicated cooperation between the two nations on climate action. Discussions halted in 2022 after then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to Taiwan.
The US envoy has used talks in Beijing — chiefly with his direct counterpart Xie Zhenhua — to discuss potential progress on issues including the world’s transition away from unabated use of coal for power, curbing deforestation and reducing methane emissions. Kerry has also linked the need to tackle global warming to extreme heat, wildfires and floods, currently menacing parts of the US, Europe and Asia.
Author: Jennifer A. Dlouhy and David Stringer