John Kerry News

Also read: Global weather alert: Heatwave engulfs US, Europe, Japan while floods wreak havoc in India and South Korea The prolonged extreme heat poses challenges to communities, with the international charitable organisation Salvation Army has been providing relief to individuals through cooling centres and mobile outreach for homeless. Scientists warn that climate change, caused by CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels, intensifies heatwaves and urges governments to take drastic actions to prevent a climate catastrophe. Also read: US heatwave: Record high temperature in California, Florida, Las Vegas.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang has remained wholly out of the public eye for the past month, sparking intense debate about his whereabouts. His last public appearance was on June 25 for a meeting with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry in Beijing. While officials indicate that he missed the recent ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ meeting due to health reasons people have remained skeptical.

After a bi-lateral meeting with India's finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the sidelines of a G20 meeting, Yellen said the two nations have been collaborating across a range of economic issues, including commercial and technological collaboration and strengthening supply chains. «In particular, we look forward to working with India on an investment platform to deliver a lower cost of capital and increased private investment to speed India's energy transition,» she said in a statement while attending the G20 in Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat, one of India's most industrialised states.

By Valerie Volcovici and David Stanway

By Valerie Volcovici

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

Antony Blinken will meet top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi on Thursday as officials gather in Indonesia for ASEAN meetings, the State Department said in announcing the latest in series of interactions between the rival superpowers. Wang is representing China at the Jakarta meetings involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and partner countries after Beijing said Foreign Minister Qin Gang would not attend due to health reasons. Blinken met Qin and Wang in Beijing last month, marking the first visit to China by a U.S. secretary of state in five years. It was aimed at bringing stability to intense rivalry between the superpowers, which are also the world's two largest economies U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited China earlier this month and climate envoy John Kerry is to visit next week. Wang, who is the foreign policy chief for the Chinese Communist Party, ranks above Qin, who as the foreign minister is the government's foreign policy chief.

The $2 billion voluntary carbon-offsets market has suffered allegations that many credits don’t deliver the emissions cuts they promise, but multiple efforts to rebuild credibility face an uphill battle. Recently the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said it would make policing carbon offsets a priority, Nestlé decided to leave the market and standard setters published guidelines that few existing buyers would meet. As things currently stand, only 5% of companies buying voluntary credits would meet the tough new standards on their proper use, according to Trove Research.

BEIJING — John Kerry, special presidential envoy for climate, is set to visit Beijing from July 16 to 19, according to announcements from the U.S. and China.

By Andrea Shalal

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen appealed to China on Saturday for cooperation on climate change and other global challenges and not to let disagreements about trade and other irritants derail relations. In a meeting with her Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng, Yellen defended US restrictions on technology exports that rankle Beijing. She said the two governments shouldn't let such disagreements disrupt thriving economic and financial relations.

HOUSTON—The chief executives of some of the world’s largest oil companies and U.S. government officials warned Monday that there were no quick-fix solutions to the higher energy prices and market volatility that have followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.