US climate envoy John Kerry will visit China this week
US climate envoy John Kerry will visit China this week in the first trip there by the Biden administration, seeking to raise global ambitions despite soaring tensions with Beijing on other fronts. The former secretary of state will visit Shanghai as well as the South Korean capital Seoul on a trip starting Wednesday, the State Department confirmed.
His trip comes in preparation for President Joe Biden’s virtual climate summit next week to which the US leader has invited both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We have big disagreements with China on some key issues, absolutely. But climate has to stand alone,” Kerry told CNN. If refusing to work together on climate, “you’re just killing yourself, you’re going be hurting your own people,” he said.
Biden has rejoined the 2015 Paris accord, which Kerry negotiated as secretary of state and committed nations to take action to keep temperature rises at no more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. Kerry, who has already traveled on his climate push to European allies, India, Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates, noted that he worked closely with China on the Paris accord in 2015 (abandoned by Trump when he became president).
https://www.courthousenews.com/kerry-presses-climate-in-first-biden-officials-trip-to-china/
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