(Beijing) US climate envoy John Kerry assured Wednesday that the United States was not imposing any climate solution on China, after Xi Jinping said Beijing would make its own decisions on how to respond to global warming. the planet.
In China since Sunday to resume the Sino-American dialogue on climate issues, John Kerry said on Wednesday that he and his team had had “extremely warm and productive meetings” with senior Chinese officials, none of whom would have expressed concern. similar to that expressed by Mr. Xi.
The Chinese president gave a speech on the environment while Mr. Kerry was in Beijing.
“We have to make our own decisions about the path, the methods, the pace and the intensity with which to implement them. No one should expect to be able to exert any influence over us,” he said according to the Chinese agency Xinhua.
Xi Jinping did not directly mention the United States or John Kerry, who was not present during the speech, Xinhua said.
Asked about this during a phone call with journalists, the American diplomat replied: “We do not impose anything on anyone. We follow the science. »
“There is no politics or ideology in what we do,” he added.
The Washington envoy met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Premier Li Qiang, and his counterpart in charge of climate issues Xie Zhenhua.
PHOTO FLORENCE LO, ASSOCIATED PRESS
US Climate Envoy John Kerry and Chinese Premier Li Qiang
None of the leaders I met suggested there was any reason why we shouldn’t coordinate the way we do, with mutual respect.
John Kerry
long interruption
John Kerry explained that he had raised many subjects in China, after a long break in discussions between the two powers on the climate.
These were interrupted last year after the visit to Taiwan of Nancy Pelosi, then leader of the House of Representatives, which had angered Beijing.
According to the American envoy, the two parties focused on the best way to ensure that COP 28, scheduled for the end of 2023 in Dubai, is a success, and on the development of objectives to be proposed in 2025.
John Kerry said he felt “mutual concern” among the world’s two biggest polluters about the climate situation, while acknowledging that the discussions, although “frank”, had not led to breakthroughs.
The American delegation “realized that it would take a little more work to open up new paths”.
Americans and Chinese have agreed to focus on accelerating the integration of renewables into the energy sector to reduce coal-related emissions and work on emissions of greenhouse gases other than CO2such as methane, he detailed.
According to John Kerry, the two parties will work “intensively” on these and other issues in the coming weeks, before meeting again in a few weeks.