U.S. climate envoy Kerry says China has invited him for talks
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[May 04, 2023]
By Alexander Ratz, Sarah Marsh and Valerie Volcovici
BERLIN (Reuters) - U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said on Wednesday China
has invited him to visit "in the near term" for talks on averting a
global climate change crisis even as diplomatic relations between the
world's two biggest greenhouse gas emitters remain tense.
The United States and China must work together to address climate
change, Kerry said in an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of a
conference on global warming in Berlin.
U.S. President Joe Biden has authorized the meeting but the timing
remains to be determined and certain issues must still be clarified,
Kerry said. China, for example, first must issue its plan to reduce
methane emissions and advance in the transition away from coal, Kerry
added.
"This has to be cooperative, notwithstanding other differences that do
exist," said Kerry, a former U.S. secretary of state. "This is not a
bilateral issue. This is a universal global threat to everybody in every
nation."
Referring to the United States and China, Kerry added, "The two biggest
economies, biggest contributors to that problem need to be able to come
together and work to try to help resolve it."
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Kerry said the United States may be able to help China on its methane
strategy, a policy that Beijing was due to have announced last year but
did not.
China last year briefly suspended talks with the United States on
climate, security and other areas in response to a visit to Taiwan by
U.S. House of Representatives then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Although China subsequently resumed those talks, relations between the
two countries deteriorated again after what the United States described
as a Chinese spy balloon traversed American airspace in February,
prompting Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a scheduled
visit to Beijing.
The State Department since then has expressed a desire to reschedule
Blinken's visit, though no date has been set. Blinken said on Wednesday
he hopes to be able to reschedule it for sometime this year.
Kerry said he held a virtual conversation with his Chinese counterpart
Xie Zhenhua "just a week or two ago."
"China has invited me to visit in the near term to be able to meet with
him (Xie) to be able to work on work that we've been doing for several
years, which is trying to find the pathway forward to be able to
cooperate in ways that are beneficial to the world. And hopefully, we'll
be able to do that," Kerry said.
Kerry said he also briefly spoke with the Chinese representative
attending the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin hosted by the German
foreign ministry.
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![](../images/050423PIX/news_k21.jpg)
U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for
Climate John Kerry attends a Reuters interview at the "Petersberg
Climate Conference" in Berlin, Germany May 3, 2023. REUTERS/Michele
Tantussi
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Jul/22/images/ads/current/rohlfs_lda_072017.png)
Asked if China offered a constructive approach, Kerry called it too
early to tell.
"I have to get into the meeting, I have to figure out exactly where
we are," Kerry said.
"We're not pointing fingers and we're not out there trying to, you
know, make this part of the other issues that are out there" between
the United States and China, Kerry added. "This (climate change) is
a free-standing issue which affects China as it affects the United
States."
OVERSHOOTING TEMPERATURE TARGET WOULD BE 'FRIGHTENING'
China did not appear to have "fully embraced" the global goal agreed
at a U.N. summit in France in 2015 of limiting global warming to 1.5
degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), Kerry said.
"It has embraced the U.N. Paris terminology, which is ... well below
2 degrees, and leaves up for grabs what that might mean," Kerry said
of China. "To me, there is certainly no way that 'well below 2' is
1.9 or 1.8 or 1.7."
Kerry said the ability to actually achieve that target, however, was
"on the borderline right now."
"Some scientists would tell you we've already blown past it. Others
will suggest ... we may shoot past it, but come back to it because
of the technologies and other capacities we have to deploy clean
energy," Kerry said.
Overshooting is a "frightening prospect," Kerry said, given the
irreversible effects of passing a tipping point, like the melting of
polar ice caps.
As such, the next global climate conference, COP28, scheduled for
Nov. 30 to Dec. 10 in the United Arab Emirates, is "critical" and
the most important since 2015, Kerry said.
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The COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber has faced criticism for also
being the head of the UAE's state oil giant, but Kerry said the COP
offers "an opportunity for us to bring people to the table who
haven't been part of the process."
Kerry said he supports Germany's proposal at the Petersberg Climate
Dialogue to set a goal at COP28 to triple renewable energy by 2030,
noting Europe's largest economy was a trend-setter in this regard.
(Reporting by Alexander Ratz, Sarah Marsh and Valerie Volcovici;
Additional Reporting by Michael Martina and Kate Abnett; Editing by
Will Dunham)
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