China-US climate progress could hinge on new methane deal
By Valerie Volcovici and David Stanway
BEIJING (Reuters) — This week's visit by U.S. climate envoy John Kerry to China after years of diplomatic disruptions could boost cooperation between the world's two biggest carbon polluters on the key issue of methane emissions.
Kerry arrived in Beijing on Sunday for talks aimed at reviving efforts by China and the United States toward curbing climate-warming emissions. Experts have said any move to cooperate on methane — a greenhouse gas responsible for roughly 30% of global warming — could provide a way forward.
«Methane is particularly important for our cooperation,» Kerry told a congressional hearing on Thursday in Washington. «China agreed to have a methane action plan out of our prior talks in Glasgow (in 2021), and again in Sharm el-Sheikh» in November.
During those COP27 climate talks last year in Egypt, China's top climate envoy, Xie Zhenhua, made an unexpected appearance at a meeting of the Global Methane Partnership, a U.S.-EU led initiative aimed at slashing 2020-level methane emissions by 30% by the end of this decade.
Xie said China had drafted a plan with concrete measures to curb methane emissions from energy, agriculture and waste. China has yet to make the plan public.
Sources in contact with Kerry's team said the United States hopes China will unveil the plan before the next U.N. climate conference, COP28, being held in December in Dubai.
«It's the opening salvo to be able to sit down and have some more serious discussions about methane in China,» said Jonathan Banks, global director for methane prevention at the global research and advocacy nonprofit Clean Air Task Force (CATF).
China is aiming to bring carbon dioxide emissions to a peak by 2030 and
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