China and the United States can use climate cooperation to redefine their troubled relationship and tackle global warming, US climate envoy John Kerry told Chinese officials on Tuesday.
Kerry’s three-day visit to China, aimed at rekindling climate cooperation between the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, has seen severe heat waves in many parts of the world, including the heat dome in the US West. 53C on Sunday.
“It is our hope that this will be the beginning of a new definition of cooperation and the ability to resolve our differences,” Kerry told diplomat Wang Yi at a meeting in China’s cavernous legislative building, the Great Hall of the People.
Addressing Prime Minister Li Keqiang, Kerry warned that the situation could worsen this summer and cited reports that a weather station in northwestern Xinjiang recorded a maximum temperature of 52.2 degrees Celsius on Sunday.
“The forecasts are more extreme than ever,” Kerry said after Li’s unusual interruption of doubts about Xinjiang’s temperature.
Li later acknowledged the dire climate impacts facing China and elsewhere, according to those in the room.
Topics of discussion between the two sides included the issue of climate finance, China’s coal consumption and reducing methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
Li urged rich countries to “take the lead” in reducing emissions and fulfilling their obligations to provide climate finance to developing countries, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Kerry told Wang that the talks would provide a fresh start for the two countries, which have been embroiled in disputes over Taiwan and trade.
“We really hope that this can be the start of a conversation between you and me on the climate track, but we can start to change the broader relationship,” Kerry told Wang.
He delivered a message from President Joe Biden, saying Wang “how much he values his relationship” with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
On Tuesday, US and Chinese representatives will resume talks where they left off the day before. Asked how the discussions were going, Kerry said it was too early to tell.
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