(Beijing) US climate envoy John Kerry met with the Chinese Communist Party’s top diplomat Wang Yi in Beijing on Tuesday, as the world’s two biggest polluters resume dialogue on climate change.
Mr. Kerry, who arrived in the Chinese capital on Sunday, was received by Mr. Wang at the People’s Palace, noted an AFP journalist.
The two men shook hands and exchanged a few words before starting a meeting, according to the same source.
On Monday, John Kerry spoke for four hours with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua, according to state television CCTV.
Washington and Beijing “must take urgent action on a number of fronts, particularly on the challenges [que constituent] coal and methane pollution,” he tweeted afterwards.
“The climate crisis demands that the world’s two largest economies work together to limit global warming,” he added.
“Climate change is a common challenge for all humanity,” commented Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning, interviewed during a regular briefing.
China “will exchange with the United States on issues related to climate change and work with them to meet the challenges and improve the well-being of current and future generations”, she further assured.
The climate dialogue was interrupted almost a year ago: China suspended it to protest against the trip to Taiwan of Nancy Pelosi, then speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
The atmosphere now seems to be the resumption of trade, even if Washington wants to display its firmness in this area.
John Kerry will call on China “not to hide behind the assertion that it is a developing country”, to minimize its commitment against climate change, announced Sunday on CNN Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser of the American president.
“Every country, including China, has a responsibility to reduce its emissions”, had hammered Mr. Sullivan, and “the world should encourage even more China – even pressure it – to take much more radical measures to reduce its broadcasts.
The world’s second-largest economy “still has work to do in this area,” he said.