US climate envoy John Kerry says China has invited him for talks
- Relations between the world’s two biggest greenhouse gas emitters remain tense over issues like Taiwan and an alleged Chinese spy balloon in US airspace
- Kerry said the United States may be able to help China on its methane strategy, a policy that Beijing was due to have announced last year but did not
US climate envoy John Kerry said on Wednesday China has invited him to visit “in the near term” for talks on averting a global climate change crisis even as diplomatic relations between the world’s two biggest greenhouse gas emitters remain tense.
The United States and China must work together to address climate change, Kerry said in an interview on the sidelines of a conference on global warming in Berlin.
US President Joe Biden has authorised the meeting but the timing remains to be determined and certain issues must still be clarified, Kerry said. China, for example, first must issue its plan to reduce methane emissions and advance in the transition away from coal, Kerry added.
“This has to be cooperative, notwithstanding other differences that do exist,” said Kerry, a former US secretary of state. “This is not a bilateral issue. This is a universal global threat to everybody in every nation.”
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Referring to the United States and China, Kerry added, “The two biggest economies, biggest contributors to that problem need to be able to come together and work to try to help resolve it.”