US, China advance climate cooperation following California talks
By David Stanway and Valerie Volcovici
SINGAPORE/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States and China will back a new global renewables target and work together on methane and plastic pollution, they said in a joint statement on Wednesday after a meeting to find common ground ahead of COP28 talks in Dubai later this month.
Climate envoys John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua, meeting in Sunnylands, California, from Nov. 4-8, agreed to revive a bilateral climate working group that will discuss areas of cooperation, the joint statement said, though differences remain on issues like phasing out fossil fuels.
«The Sunnylands statement is a timely effort of aligning the United States and China ahead of COP28,» said Li Shuo, incoming director of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society.
Li described the relationship between the world's two biggest greenhouse gas emitters as «a precondition for meaningful global progress» and said the Sunnylands agreement would help «stabilise the politics» ahead of the Dubai talks.
The re-launch of the working group marks the normalisation of the climate relationship between the two countries following a hiatus triggered in 2022 by the visit of former House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, a self-governing island that China claims as its own.
Partnership between the world's two biggest emitting countries is seen as a crucial element to securing a consensus agreement at COP28.
For the first time, China — the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions — will include non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gases like nitrogen oxide in its 2035 national climate plan as well as specific actions to curb methane emissions, major sources of global emissions.
«This implies that China needs to do a
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