Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua has invited his American counterpart John Kerry to China for climate talks, raising optimism that the world’s two largest polluters could resume their climate change collaboration.
Last week, while the US held the Major Economies Forum on climate change, the two seasoned diplomats virtually conversed. According to the former US Secretary of State, Kerry received an invitation from Xie during this discussion.
“My hope is that out of these discussions we get back to where we were two years ago because we must be able to cooperate together on this issue”, Kerry said.
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While the administration of US President Joe Biden has made an effort to keep climate talks apart from the larger US-China relationship, disagreements over Taiwan’s independence and the recent Chinese spy balloon incident have hindered the two countries from seriously discussing climate change.
Health issues have also hindered progress, with Kerry telling Foreign Policy magazine that Xie suffered “something of a stroke” in January which prevented him from working for “a month and a half or so”. Xie has not made any foreign trips since and his participation in November’s Cop28 climate talks is in doubt.
Story was adapted from Climate Home News
