China, U.S. climate envoys agree to maintain close communication after talks

BEIJING (Reuters) – China and the United States agreed to maintain close communications after climate envoys from both countries met in Beijing, China’s environment ministry said on Thursday.

China’s climate envoy Xie Zhenhua and his U.S. counterpart John Kerry discussed policy measures and progress on actions both countries have taken to address climate change, the ministry said in a statement.

Kerry arrived in Beijing on Sunday for three days of talks. Kerry said before his departure late on Wednesday that negotiations would continue ahead of the COP28 global climate talks in Dubai at the end of the year.

The meetings were aimed at rebuilding trust between the two sides after climate diplomacy between the world’s two biggest carbon dioxide emitters was suspended in August last year following the visit of House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, the self-governing island that China claims.

While there were no new agreements made during the talks, Kerry said the two sides had reached a consensus on many issues, including the need to abate methane, transition from coal and keep temperature rises within 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

“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,” he told reporters.