US envoy John Kerry says 'more work' needed to rebuild China-US climate relations
By Valerie Volcovici and David Stanway
BEIJING (Reuters) -U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said more work was needed to iron out agreements with China on major issues after three days of talks in Beijing aimed at rebuilding trust between the world's two biggest greenhouse gas emitters.
«We — our team and the United States administration — came to Beijing in order to unstick what has been stuck since almost last August,» Kerry told reporters late on Wednesday.
Climate talks were suspended last year following the visit of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, an island over which China claims sovereignty.
«This is our first in-person meeting since that time, and we're here to break new ground,» Kerry told a briefing on Wednesday.
Kerry said more meetings would be held between the two countries in the run-up to crucial COP28 talks in Dubai at the end of the year.
Li Shuo, senior climate adviser with the environmental group Greenpeace in Beijing, said this week's talks were «a complex rescue operation for the U.S.-China climate dialogue» and said it could put relations on a «stronger footing».
«Further engagements should help unlock more ambition in reducing coal consumption, cutting methane emissions, and beating a path towards a stronger outcome at COP28,» he said.
Kerry earlier told Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng that climate change was a «universal threat» that should be handled separately from broader diplomatic issues between China and the United States.
Acknowledging the diplomatic difficulties between the two sides in recent years, Kerry said climate should be treated as a «free-standing» challenge that requires the collective efforts of the world's largest economies to resolve.
«We have the
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