Climate Talks Between China and the United States Focus on Diplomatic Relations
By Valerie Volcovici and David Stanway
BEIJING/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Climate talks this week between China and the United States were buoyed by goodwill, but the world’s two biggest carbon polluters achieved more on righting their diplomatic relationship than battling climate change.
Despite a strong rapport between the countries’ veteran envoys, expectations for a breakthrough were low when John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua sat down for three days of talks in Beijing through Wednesday.
Kerry claimed progress, if mostly on getting relations back on track, but issues from U.S. politics to the diplomats’ job prospects could make further advances difficult. China has not yet published an official reaction to the talks.
Repairing Diplomatic Relations
“We came here first of all to get back into sync,” Kerry told reporters. “That is breaking ground: We were stopped, stymied for almost a year.”
With relations at a low over national security issues, U.S. export bans on advanced technologies and China’s state-led industrial policies, Washington has been trying to repair ties between the world’s two biggest economies.
High-level U.S. visits to China had been halted due to Beijing’s anger at a visit by U.S. then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in August 2022 to Taiwan, a self-governed island claimed by China. But in recent weeks, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited ahead of Kerry, a former secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate.
Focus on Sustainable Development Goals
Washington and Beijing share a desire to accelerate the transition away from coal and abate methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Kerry said China agreed that a target to keep global temperatures rises within 1.5 Celsius of pre-industrial levels should remain “alive”.
China has previous shown scepticism around the ability to achieve 1.5C, favouring the less stringent Paris target of 2C.
“I’m very comfortable we came out at a place where we had China ready and willing to work in an aggressive way – providing someone else or something else doesn’t screw it up.”
Li Shuo, climate adviser with environmental group Greenpeace in Beijing, said building more resilience into a still “fragile” diplomatic relationship was a crucial element in the talks.
“Overall, this is as good as it can get,” said Li, who has been closely following China-U.S. climate diplomacy for more than a decade.
Challenges and Optimism
Kerry and Xie focused on progress headed toward COP28, the annual U.N. climate summit in November.
Questions remain about the longer term, should political winds shift in the United States or the two diplomats leave their posts.
Kerry, powered by orange juice and ice cream sundaes during this week’s marathon talks, turns 80 in December. Xie, 73, has been plagued by ill-health, limiting his trips overseas.
The U.S. envoy would not speculate on what would happen if he or Xie stepped down but acknowledged that U.S. politics, heating up before next year’s presidential election, would make diplomacy harder.
Republicans who favour a harder line against China have criticised his trip.
Continued Disputes
“We all understand the difficult situation for John Kerry,” said Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Environment and Public Affairs, a Beijing environment group.
“He is passionate on climate, just like his counterpart, Special Envoy Xie,” Ma said. “But in America, climate collaboration has been affected by local politics and that does make it quite difficult.”
Disputes remain. Premier Li Qiang, meeting Kerry on Tuesday, raised the issue of finance, urging richer countries to make money available as soon as possible.
Top diplomat Wang Yi rejected Kerry’s plea to ring-fence climate from broader bilateral disputes, saying climate “cannot be separated from the overall environment of Sino-U.S. relations”.
The Communist Party-run People’s Daily said last week the “oasis” of climate change cooperation could soon be a desert if the United States did not “meet China halfway” on issues like U.S. trade sanctions on solar panels.
But Kerry told reporters he was still optimistic that diplomacy could bring more rewards in the run-up to COP28 in Dubai.
“You don’t come crashing in here and start pushing people around,” he said. “You work through it. You talk. You build a relationship.”
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici and David Stanway; Editing by William Mallard)
SDGs, Targets, and Indicators in the Article
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SDG 13: Climate Action
- Target 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters.
- Target 13.2: Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies, and planning.
- Target 13.3: Improve education, awareness-raising, and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction, and early warning.
- Target 13.a: Implement the commitment undertaken by developed-country parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion annually by 2020 from all sources to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation and fully operationalize the Green Climate Fund through its capitalization as soon as possible.
- Target 13.b: Promote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in least developed countries and small island developing states, including focusing on women, youth, and local and marginalized communities.
The issues discussed in the article are directly connected to SDG 13, which focuses on climate action. The article mentions that China and the United States share a desire to accelerate the transition away from coal and abate methane, both of which are key actions for addressing climate change. The targets under SDG 13 that can be identified based on the article’s content include strengthening resilience to climate-related hazards, integrating climate change measures into national policies, improving education and awareness on climate change, mobilizing financial resources for developing countries, and promoting capacity-building in least developed countries and small island developing states.
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SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions
- Target 16.3: Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all.
- Target 16.6: Develop effective, accountable, and transparent institutions at all levels.
- Target 16.7: Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory, and representative decision-making at all levels.
The article mentions the diplomatic relationship between China and the United States and the efforts to repair ties between the two countries. This is connected to SDG 16, which focuses on peace, justice, and strong institutions. The targets under SDG 16 that can be identified based on the article’s content include promoting the rule of law, developing effective and transparent institutions, and ensuring inclusive and participatory decision-making.
Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators
| SDGs | Targets | Indicators |
|---|---|---|
| SDG 13: Climate Action |
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No specific indicators mentioned in the article. |
| SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions |
|
No specific indicators mentioned in the article. |
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