United States-China Climate Talks: “It’s Really Constructive”

On Wednesday, US climate change envoy John Kerry stated that his talks with Chinese officials this week were “constructive but complicated”, with the two sides still dealing with political externalities, such as Taiwan.

“We’re just reconnecting”, Kerry explained.

He further said, “We’re attempting to re-establish the process we have been working on for years”.

Kerry landed in Beijing on Sunday and met with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi, Premier Li Qiang, and veteran climate envoy Xie Zhenhua in an effort to repair trust between the two sides ahead of COP28 climate talks in Dubai at the end of this year.

“We’re attempting to carve out a very clear path to the COP to be able to cooperate and work as we have wanted to with all the externalities”, Mr. Kerry continued.

Climate diplomacy between the world’s top two emitters was interrupted in August last year after the US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, a democratically controlled claimed by China.

Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, Mr. Kerry remarked, “The mood is very, very positive”.

Mr. Kerry went on to say, “We had a fantastic dinner last night. We had a lot of back and forth. It’s really constructive”.

“We’re focused on the substance of what we can really work on and what we can make happen”, Mr. Kerry added.

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