US, China agree on need for stronger climate commitments

Shanghai

CHINA and the United States agree that stronger pledges to fight climate change should be introduced before a new round of international talks at the end of the year, the two countries said in a joint statement on Sunday.

The statement came after a meeting between Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua and his US counterpart, John Kerry, in Shanghai last Thursday and Friday, China's environment ministry said.

"The United States and China are committed to cooperating with each other and with other countries to tackle the climate crisis," the joint statement said.

The two countries will continue to discuss "concrete actions in the 2020s to reduce emissions aimed at keeping the Paris Agreement-aligned temperature limit within reach".

Mr Kerry arrived in Shanghai last Wednesday night under tight Covid-19 protocols and was transferred to a secluded hotel not open to the public. He subsequently travelled to Seoul.

His stop in Shanghai was the first high-level visit to China by a Biden administration official since the new president took office in January, and followed a contentious exchange between officials from the two countries in March in Alaska.

The talks also mark a resumption of climate dialogue between the world's two biggest greenhouse gas emitters.

Bilateral discussions ground to a halt during the administration of former president Donald Trump, who controversially withdrew from the 2015 Paris agreement after claiming it unfairly punished US businesses.

The US is expected soon to deliver a new pledge to reduce US greenhouse gas emissions in a bid to win back trust from foreign allies. Mr Biden brought the US back into the Paris climate accord shortly after taking office.

Li Shuo, senior climate adviser for the environmental group Greenpeace, said China could soon respond to a new US pledge with one of its own, building on the "momentum" of the Shanghai talks.

"The statement in my view is as positive as the politics would allow: It sends a very unequivocal message that on this particular issue, (China and the US) will cooperate. Before the meetings in Shanghai this was not a message that we could assume," Mr Li said.

Mr Biden will hold a virtual summit for dozens of world leaders this week to discuss climate change, to be livestreamed to the public. Global climate talks are scheduled for Nov 1-12 in Glasgow.

The statement said the two countries also agreed to discuss specific emission reduction actions including energy storage, carbon capture and hydrogen.

They said they would take action to maximise financing for developing countries to switch to low-carbon energy sources.

The Paris agreement encourages countries to submit more ambitious climate pledges if they are able to do so. China has already promised enhanced actions as it tries to meet its goal to become "carbon neutral" by 2060. REUTERS