2023-07-18 07:14:00
During a trip to Beijing, the Democrat, known for his environmentalist streak, demanded new cooperation between China and the United States.
By HR with AFP John Kerry traveled to Beijing to negotiate climate cooperation with China. © EVARISTO SA / AFP Published on 07/18/2023 at 07:14
John Kerry, US envoy for the climate, traveled to Beijing (China) to negotiate new cooperation between Chinese and Americans, despite their differences, this time on environmental issues. The Democrat also explained that global warming constituted, according to him, “a threat to humanity”.
John Kerry, who arrived in China on Sunday July 16, met with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, on Tuesday as the world’s two main polluters are trying to resume dialogue after several months of diplomatic cooling. The two men shook hands and exchanged a few words before starting a meeting at the People’s Palace, an imposing building that dominates Tiananmen Square.
“You are our old friend,” Wang Yi told John Kerry, who enjoys a rather cordial and unbroken relationship with China. Former Secretary of State, the American envoy is making his third trip to Beijing since taking office in 2021.
“The climate, you know, is a global problem, not a bilateral problem. It is a threat to humanity, ”said Mr. Kerry to his interlocutor, when certain regions of the northern hemisphere are going through an episode of extreme temperatures. John Kerry, whose trip to Beijing ends on Wednesday, called for “urgent action” on climate between China and the United States, the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases on the planet. “We (Americans) hope that this meeting will mark the beginning of a new definition of cooperation (in terms of climate) and the ability to resolve the differences between us,” insisted John Kerry.
A desire for cooperation
“The cooperation on climate change is progressing between China and the United States, so we need the joint support of the peoples of both countries,” said Wang Yi. “We need a healthy, stable and lasting relationship between China and the United States,” he warned, however.
On Monday, John Kerry spoke for four hours with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua, according to state television CCTV. Washington and Beijing “must take urgent action on a number of fronts, particularly with regard to coal and methane pollution”, the American envoy then underlined on Twitter.
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“The climate crisis demands that the world’s two largest economies work together to limit global warming,” he added. The climate dialogue was interrupted almost a year ago: China suspended it to protest against the trip to Taiwan of Nancy Pelosi, then speaker of the United States House of Representatives. The atmosphere now seems to be the resumption of trade, even if Washington wants to display its firmness in this area.
John Kerry will call on China “not to hide behind the assertion that it is a developing country”, to minimize its commitment against climate change, announced Sunday on CNN Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser of the American president. “Every country, including China, has a responsibility to reduce its emissions,” insisted Mr. Sullivan.
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Visits to China by senior US officials have multiplied in recent months to warm up diplomatic relations: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken went there in June, then US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in early July. Mr. Kerry’s trip to this country comes at a time when the impact of climate change is particularly felt on the planet, with heat waves in many parts of the world including China. A temperature record for mid-July was thus broken in the semi-desert region of Xinjiang (west) with 52.2 ° C recorded on Sunday.
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