US-China climate relations brace for US election, envoy change
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[December 22, 2023]
By Valerie Volcovici and David Stanway
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. and China have delivered big wins in
climate diplomacy through the unique relationship of their chief climate
envoys, but the two countries are bracing for change as the Chinese
envoy retires and the U.S. readies for an election.
In an interview with Reuters, U.S. Special Climate Envoy John Kerry was
vague about his plans for the future.
"No matter what, I am going to try to do what works best," he said after
last week's U.N. climate summit, COP28, in Dubai. "I haven't made any
decisions about anything, and I will continue as long as God gives me
the breath and work on it [climate] one way or the other."
The COP28 summit's final deal also marked the last official action by
Kerry's longtime ally - China's ailing 75-year-old climate envoy, Xie
Zhenhua, who had guided China's international climate talks for 16
years.
The deal's success came partly from a U.S.-China proposal – brokered by
the two sides a month earlier during a bilateral meeting in California.
In that so-called Sunnylands agreement, Kerry and Xie ditched a
controversial call to "phase out" fossil fuels, and used a new phrase
that essentially meant the same thing – "accelerate the substitution for
coal, oil and gas generation."
That new phrasing, used alongside a joint pledge to boost renewable
energy, evolved into the COP28 deal's central call for countries to
triple renewable energy capacity as a way of "transitioning away from
fossil fuels."
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The Sunnylands pact ended up being "very important" at COP28, Kerry told
Reuters. We "created something different in the air."
That unique U.S.-China cooperation on climate change has also been key
to driving climate action globally, as policies set in the world's two
largest economies – and biggest polluters – can impact energy trends
internationally.
But the momentum could be challenged if Kerry's boss, President Joe
Biden, loses next year's U.S. election. With the vote still 11 months
away, Biden's biggest challenge is coming from former President Donald
Trump – a vocal climate denier who scuppered U.S. climate diplomacy for
years.
"Despite the divergent national interests they represent, Kerry and Xie
share the firm belief that to solve the climate crisis the U.S. and
China need to engage with each other," said Li Shuo, incoming director
of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society.
"For the ones coming after them, the drive will be bumpy," Li said.
CHINA READIES FOR CHANGE
Whichever way the White House vote swings, China is readying a new
climate diplomacy effort and is expected to announce Xie's replacement
as the English-speaking diplomat Liu Zhenmin, who once worked as China's
deputy foreign minister.
Described as "affable" by one former colleague, Liu shadowed Xie at
COP28, meeting national delegates, offering several speeches on China's
green energy achievements, but otherwise remaining tight-lipped with
journalists.
Liu later told the Chinese financial news outlet Caijing that he had
participated in COP28 as "an old comrade" in climate talks and described
the broader negotiating team.
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"Our negotiators are very young, and this is a good thing," he is quoted
as saying in the interview published on Monday. "Addressing climate
change requires not only old comrades, but also for the young generation
to participate more and better."
Some COP28 observers questioned whether his foreign ministry background
might mean China would seek to align its climate plans more closely with
its foreign policy objectives.
Kerry also has a foreign policy background, having served as the U.S.
secretary of state under President Barack Obama.
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![](../images/122223PIX/news_p30.jpg)
U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry and Chinese Climate Envoy Xie Zhenhua
attend a press conference, after a draft of a negotiation deal was
released, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 in
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 13, 2023. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky/File
Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Dec/22/images/ads/current/peasleymemorials_lda_2022.png)
Foreign policy issues have previously dogged climate relations, most
notably in 2021 after U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan as the
House Speaker and declared U.S. support for the self-governing
island claimed by China.
But the two sides continued to talk climate, with Kerry insisting on
separating the issue from other disputes. China and Liu have said
recently, however, that climate talks cannot be a diplomatic
"oasis."
After his term in China's foreign ministry, Liu was appointed in
2017 as under-secretary-general at the U.N. Department of Economic
and Social Affairs (UN-DESA), with a broad brief that touched on
climate change. He also helped China negotiate both the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol and the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.
Two former Western diplomats familiar with Liu's work predicted he
would do well as China's climate envoy – having deep experience in
climate issues and in multilateral negotiations.
Still, Xie will be a tough act to follow, one diplomat said. "Xie
has this human warmth, hugging and embracing people, which is very
rare in China. No one in the negotiating community has anything
close to the respect of Xie."
PERSONAL DIPLOMACY
During his interview with Reuters, Kerry emphasized his achievements
with Xie, a Communist Party technocrat with a background in
engineering.
The warmth between Kerry and Xie, built over some 60 face-to-face
meetings, helped broker agreements including the 2015 Paris deal and
a bilateral deal that helped countries agree at COP26 in Glasgow to
"phase down" coal use.
"We did more than plant the seeds for future cooperation," Kerry
told Reuters.
"We created a working group. We agreed to a process and created an
institutional structure," he said. "There is a process in place
going forward."
That process could be jeopardized if Trump retakes the U.S.
presidency. One of Trump's signature acts was to pull the U.S. out
of the Paris Agreement.
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China shifted its diplomatic focus on climate toward U.S. states
like California, with former Governor Jerry Brown visiting China's
President Xi Jinping in 2017. Chinese provinces and U.S. states also
collaborated on climate research and diplomatic exchanges.
Brown told Reuters this year that those subnational partnerships
helped to keep the U.S.-China climate relationship alive under
Trump.
China's outgoing Xie sought to reassure at COP28 that the commitment
to climate cooperation remained strong, acknowledging that it "also
played a role in improving the complicated bilateral relationship
between China and the United States."
He and Kerry made several appearances together, with Xie warmly
wishing Kerry a happy 80th birthday.
"Neither of us will leave this community or depart from this great
cause," Xie told reporters in a summit briefing. "Both of us will
continue to make contributions and efforts to bring this process
forward."
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici in Washington, D.C., and David
Stanway in Singapore; Editing by Katy Daigle and Josie Kao)
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