China, US have fertile ground for climate cooperation: Expert

A senior climate expert has expressed high expectations for cooperation between China and the United States, as John Kerry continues a four-day trip to China that started on Sunday.

Liu Yanhua, honorary director of China's National Committee of Experts on Climate Change, made the remarks on Monday in a press conference held in the Beijing Hotel, where Kerry is talking with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua.

Kerry's visit represents rare contact on climate issues that have been made public between the world's two largest carbon emitters, after China suspended climate talks with the US in August last year following the controversial visit to Taiwan by Nancy Pelosi, then-speaker of the US House of Representatives.

There are solid foundations for Sino-US climate cooperation, as it's a consensus of the heads of state of the two nations, said Liu, also a former vice-minister of science and technology.

When Chinese President Xi Jinping met with US President Joe Biden ahead of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia in November, "the two presidents emphasized the two nations must beef up climate cooperation," he said.

The two countries have previously cooperated on climate change issues many times, and they made great contributions to global climate governance, he said, citing the success of their efforts in promoting the adoption of the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change as an example.

Liu also noted the four working groups China and the US set up following a joint declaration made in 2021 at the COP26 United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland. The groups were established to leverage the strengths of the two for climate cooperation in various sectors, and they have done some work, he said.

As the world's largest carbon emitters and also the biggest producers of renewable energy, the two countries have much cooperation potential to tap into in promoting the global energy transition, Liu said, adding China and the US can carry out climate cooperation in a third-party country or develop technologies for addressing climate change.

Citing a report from the International Energy Agency in 2021, Liu said in 2050 almost half the reductions will have to come from technologies currently at the demonstration or prototype phase, if the world wants to realize net zero emissions in time.

"No country can be immune from climate change, and neither can any single country address these problems by itself. Only via cooperation can we promote progress," he said.