Singapore: China and the United States will push for stronger international climate change commitments by the end of the year in a show of solidarity that will put further pressure on Australia to take more action on emissions reduction.
In a substantial breakthrough after hostile negotiations between the foreign affairs arms of both countries in Alaska in March, the two governments will work together on developing carbon capture, energy storage and hydrogen targets, while also providing funding for developing countries to switch to greener energy sources.
The United States and China are committed to cooperating with each other and with other countries to tackle the climate crisis, which must be addressed with the seriousness and urgency that it demands, the joint statement from the two negotiators released on Sunday morning said.
US climate envoy John Kerry. Credit:Bloomberg
While the brief statement outlines the two superpowers shared aims, it provided no detail on any specific goals or methods to tackle climate change.
US climate envoy John Kerry has spent the past four days in Shanghai locked in negotiations with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua. The two men know each other well and represent the first extended positive diplomatic contact between the two superpowers since the beginning of the Biden administration.
Its very important for us to try to keep those other things away, because climate is a life-or-death issue in so many different parts of the world, Kerry said on Sunday morning in Seoul in an interview reported in The New York Times. What we need to do is prove we can actually get together, sit down and work on some things constructively.
The agreement is a rare sign of optimism in an otherwise troubled relationship. The US and China remain at loggerheads over human rights abuses, national security threats and economic coercion.
Chinas President Xi Jinping separately met virtually with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday. The European powers said they would work with China on implementing the Paris Agreement, enhance climate policy dialogue and cooperation in the area of green development.
Chinese state media reported Xi describing the mission as a hard battle for the worlds largest developing country.
