WASHINGTON
\nThe United States (US) and China will look to revive efforts to combat global warming this week, in bilateral meetings that observers hope will raise the bar on ambitions ahead of UN-sponsored climate talks in late 2023.
\nThe talks follow two other high-level US visits to China this year, as the world\u2019s largest greenhouse gas emitters work to stabilize a relationship strained by trade disputes, military tensions and accusations of spying.
\nJohn Kerry, the US special envoy on climate change, arrived in Beijing on Sunday for talks with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua from Monday through Wednesday. The talks will focus on issues including reducing methane emissions, limiting coal use, curbing deforestation and helping poor countries address climate change.
\nThe pair, who have cultivated a warm relationship over more than two decades of diplomacy, will also likely discuss China\u2019s objections to US tariffs and other restrictions on imports of Chinese solar panel and battery components, observers say.
\nWashington is seeking to protect US manufacturers from low-cost competitors in China, including those it suspects of using forced labor, which Beijing denies.
\n\u201cI wouldn\u2019t look for breakthroughs in these meetings but my hope is that they restore normal alignment and diplomacy,\u201d said David Sandalow, director of the US-China program at the Center on Global Energy Policy.
\nKerry addressed his objectives for the China trip at a House foreign relations subcommittee hearing on Thursday, saying: \u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to achieve now is really to establish some stability with the relationship without conceding anything.\u201d
\nRepublicans have accused the Biden administration of being too soft on Beijing in climate diplomacy, arguing that China continues to increase its greenhouse gas emissions while the United States imposes costly measures to clean up.
\nKerry is the third US official after Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to visit China this year to try to reestablish a stable bilateral relationship.
\nBoth countries say they should be able to collaborate on climate change regardless of other disagreements.
\nLi Shuo from Greenpeace in Beijing said the scheduled talks showed climate change \u201cis still the touchstone for the most important bilateral relationship of the world.\u201d
\nTalks between the US and China have a history of boosting global climate negotiations, including setting the foundation for the Paris climate accord in 2015, when governments agreed to limit the industrial-era rise in global temperatures to 1.5 C.
\nBut broader tensions have chilled the relationship since, including Trump-era tariffs on Chinese goods including solar panels, the visit of former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan last year, and a US law blocking imports of goods from the Xinjiang region where Washington believes China uses forced labour.
\nAfter Pelosi\u2019s August trip to Taiwan, a democratically-governed island that China claims as part of its territory, Beijing said it would halt all dialogue with Washington on climate change. The two countries only resumed informal climate talks in November at the COP27 summit in Egypt.
\nUS passage of the sweeping Inflation Reduction Act, whose tax credits for domestic clean energy production seek to counter China\u2019s dominance in the sector and revive US manufacturing, have also ramped up tensions.
\nAnd while China has added more renewable energy than the rest of the world combined, it has also made a strong foray back to coal \u2013 a major concern for Washington. In 2022, China issued its highest number of new permits for coal plants since 2015, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and the Global Energy Monitor (GEM).
\n\u201cWhile the US will raise the issue of halting development of new coal generation, it seems unlikely that China will give any assurances on this issue,\u201d said Alden Meyer, a Senior Associate at the E3G think tank and long-time climate negotiations observer.
\n\u201cAnd while China will likely raise the issue of US tariffs on Chinese solar technology, it is unlikely that the US will announce any changes on that front,\u201d he said.
\nDuring Yellen\u2019s visit last month, she made a public push to get China to participate in the UN-run funds to help poorer nations address climate change. China, which considers itself a developing nation, has resisted.
\nFang Li, China director at the World Resources Institute, said she also expects the United States to push China to strengthen its national climate pledge under the Paris agreement but may face reluctance from a Chinese side irked by US trade barriers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON The United States (US) and China will look to revive efforts to combat global warming this week, in bilateral meetings that observers hope will raise the bar on ambitions ahead of UN-sponsored climate talks in late 2023. The talks follow two other high-level US visits to China this year, as the world\u2019s largest greenhouse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343525,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-343511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n