US climate envoy John Kerry met Tuesday with his Chinese counterpart at the annual United Nations climate negotiations in Egypt in a further hint of improving relations between the world’s top two polluters, seen as vital for substantial progress against global warming.
The meeting between Kerry and China’s top climate official, Xie Zhenhua, raised prospects for a full-fledged resumption of climate talks between the two countries, which Beijing put on hold three months ago in retaliation for US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan.
Kerry and Xie met for about 45 minutes at the Chinese delegation’s offices in the COP27 conference zone. Neither side revealed much after it was over. The Chinese officials left without commenting.
“We had a very good meeting,” Kerry said. It was “much too early” to talk about any remaining differences, he said. “But we’re gonna go to work.” A day earlier, Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed with President Biden to resume the talks.
Other geopolitical tensions flared up. A handful of European Union delegates walked out of a plenary speech by Russia's special climate representative, Ruslan Edelgeriev, and a small group of Ukrainian and Polish activists briefly disrupted a Russian side event.
“They are killing us daily and they are here in the heart of international talks. They are accepted like normal people, but they are not," activist Svitlana Romanko shouted at the event as she was led away by security.
Government ministers are pushing for a substantial climate deal by the time the meeting is supposed to wrap up on Friday. Officials from developing nations, meanwhile, have been increasingly lashing out in anger and frustration at wealthy countries at the gathering, known as COP27, condemning them for not doing enough to cut back emissions or help them cope with a warming Earth.
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