UPDATE – Climate crisis demands Washington, Beijing work together, says US envoy

UPDATES WITH STATEMENT BY US PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY; CHANGES HEADLINE, DECK

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – The “climate crisis” demands that Washington and Beijing “work together,” the US president’s climate envoy, John Kerry, said on Monday.

After holding around a four-hour meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua in Beijing, Kerry said: “The climate crisis demands that the world’s two largest economies work together to limit the Earth’s warming.”

China and the US on Monday resumed talks on how to combat climate change after a hiatus of nearly a year.

Pointing out record-breaking daily temperatures, Kerry tweeted: “We must take urgent action on a number of fronts, especially the challenges of coal and methane pollution.”

The two countries suspended climate talks after then-US Congress Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August last year.

Underlining that climate change is an issue "that all mankind is facing," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Beijing would implement the spirit of a summit held by President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden last November in Bali, Indonesia.

Kerry arrived in Beijing on Sunday. He is the third senior US official to visit China in the last two months.

Last Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta.

The meeting between the top US and Chinese diplomats, who were in Jakarta for meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), came less than a month after Blinken visited Beijing.​​​​​​​

Analysts say Washington is trying to stabilize ties with Beijing, particularly the climate change talks, despite China’s strong reaction to Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.