THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 15, 2021 at 14:31 JST
U.S. special envoy for climate John Kerry attends a press conference with French Environment Minister Barbara Pompili on March 11 in Paris. (AP Photo)
BEIJING--U.S. climate envoy John Kerry is in talks in China on Thursday ahead of President Joe Biden’s climate summit of world leaders.
China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment said the discussions in Shanghai running through Saturday aim to boost cooperation on climate change and exchange views on the U.N. Climate Change Conference known as COP 26 to be held in Scotland in November.
A brief statement from the ministry said Kerry would be meeting with China’s top climate negotiator, fellow veteran diplomat Xie Zhenhua. The U.S. and China are the world’s biggest carbon emitters and both have set targets to become carbon neutral in coming decades, although China’s stated date of 2060 has been described as not ambitious enough.
The trip marks the highest-level travel to China known so far for officials of the Biden administration and comes amid heightened tensions over human rights, trade and China’s territorial claims to Taiwan and the South China Sea. As the largest contributor by far of climate-damaging fumes from burning petroleum and coal, China is essential to any success of global climate accords.
The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said no media events are planned before Kerry travels on to Seoul, South Korea.
Biden has invited 40 world leaders, including Chinese head of state Xi Jinping, to participate in an April 22-23 virtual climate summit. The U.S. and other countries are expected to announce more ambitious national targets for cutting carbon emissions and pledge financial help for climate efforts by less wealthy nations.
Kerry has been pressing global leaders in person and over the internet ahead of the summit for commitments and alliances on climate efforts.
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II