China’s Premier Li Qiang pledged the nation can strengthen climate action with Washington as he met John Kerry for the most high-profile talks scheduled during the US envoy’s visit to Beijing this week.
The meeting, at the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square, came on the second full day of Kerry’s visit. The US and China are seeking to reset relations marked by tensions over trade controls, Taiwan and human rights — while forging progress on combating global warming.
“The world is facing a daunting challenge,” Li said. “It is incumbent on China and the United States and indeed all countries to strengthen coordination, build consensus and speed up actions.”
Both sides already agreed two years ago to help accelerate the world’s transition away from unabated use of coal for power, end deforestation and curb methane emissions, Kerry said as the meeting began Tuesday. The US and China can make more progress ahead of the United Nations COP28 climate summit in Dubai that begins in late November, he added.
Talks between Li and Kerry come as parts of the US, Europe and Asia grapple with record heat that’s heightening pressure on the largest greenhouse gas emitters to take more decisive steps to curb emissions. Already, 2023 is on a likely trajectory to become the warmest year since record-keeping began in the 1800s.
“You know and I know things are changing,” Kerry told Li. “And the predictions are much more serious than they have ever been.”
Kerry referenced temperatures above 50C (122F) in China, prompting Li to caution that reports the nation had set a new record high may not be official. China’s Sanbao township in Xinjiang province had a temperature of more than 52C on Sunday, according to a report in state-run media.
Li has described climate change as one of the major crises facing the world in recent speeches. Last month, Li visited France and Germany, where he emphasized green finance and combating emissions as key areas in which to expand cooperation with the European powers.
The session with Li highlights the importance China places on the success of this week’s meetings. Li is China’s second-highest ranking government official, and typically greets dignitaries at his level or higher — including the prime ministers of Mongolia and New Zealand in recent weeks. Li also met with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen when she was in Beijing earlier this month.
In separate talks with Kerry earlier Tuesday, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi called on the US to practice a “rational and pragmatic” policy toward the world’s No. 2 economy.
“Our cooperation on climate can only take place in the general climate of China-US relations,” Wang said, speaking through a translator. “Now, sometimes small issues become big ones.”
Kerry reiterated an aspiration outlined Monday — when he had as many as 12 hours of discussions with his direct counterpart, China’s climate envoy Xie Zhenhua — that conversations on climate action should also help enhance broader ties between the nations. Xie and Kerry were scheduled to resume talks later Tuesday.
This week’s meetings are a positive signal, though “substantial differences” remain between the countries, according to Li Shuo, a senior global policy adviser with Greenpeace East Asia. “To play politics when the global climate crisis is in full display would be irresponsible,” he said.
Kerry is the third senior US official to visit Beijing in five weeks. He is carrying out the first major face-to-face negotiations with China on climate change after discussions were suspended last year following former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to Taiwan.
Author: Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Dan Murtaugh
