U.S. climate envoy John Kerry gestures as he speaks next to China’s special climate envoy Xie Zhenhua during a session at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos on May 24, 2022.
Fabrice Cofrini | AFP | Getty Images
BEIJING — John Kerry, the president’s special climate envoy, is scheduled to visit Beijing July 16-19, according to announcements from the United States and China.
“During meetings with officials (from the People’s Republic of China), Secretary Kerry aims to engage with the PRC to address the climate crisis, including with respect to increasing implementation and ambition and promotion of a successful COP28,” the US State Department said in a statement. statement.
Kerry’s trip will mark the third time in a month that a senior US official has visited China for talks.
Although the meetings have not yet led to concrete actions, they mark a resumption of in-person communication which fell due to the pandemic and geopolitical tensions.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen ended a four day trip to beijing on Sunday. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing at the end of Junemonths after he was originally scheduled to go there in February.
Blinken postponed its initial plans after news broke of an alleged Chinese spy balloon over US airspace. Beijing says it was a weather balloon that veered off course.
While Blinken’s trip to China resulted in general agreement on the need to increase flights between the two countries, the secretary of state said he failed to restore military-to-military communication.
“It is clearly in the interest of both countries to avoid any miscalculationespecially military,” Blinken said in an interview Tuesday with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, according to a State Department transcript. “So that’s something we’ll continue to pursue.”
Blinken added the “lengthy discussions” he and Yellen had covered where the United States and China had “deep differences,” as well as areas of cooperation. “It will continue,” he said.
A space of cooperation
The United States and China have indicated they can cooperate on climate and macroeconomics. The climate talks were suspended after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August. His trip had angered Beijing, which considers the democratically autonomous island part of its territory.
After US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in person in November, the two countries resumed communication on climate issues.
Xie Zhenhua, China’s special climate envoy, attended a virtual meeting of the US-led Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate in April, according to a White House reading. Xie also attended a U.S.-led event at COP 27 in Egypt in November, Kerry said in a statement.
Regarding his upcoming trip to Beijing, the United States and China did not specify which Chinese officials Kerry would meet.
The two parties are ready to “exchange views on cooperation to fight climate change“, said the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment in a statement.
Rising global temperatures
The average national temperature in June was 0.7 degrees Celsius (33 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than a year ago – and the second hottest of the month dating back to 1961, according to the China Meteorological Administration.
Daily high temperatures in Beijing have approached 37.8 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) or higher in recent weeks. Different parts of the country also experienced heavy rains or warned of flash floods.
In the meantime, forest fires in Canada record heat and drought sent smoky air over New York and other US cities.
Kerry, secretary of state in the Obama administration, became presidential special climate envoy in 2021 upon Biden’s inauguration.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of MSNBC and CNBC.
