U.S.-China climate talks ended with the world’s two top producers of heat-trapping pollution agreeing to one thing and one thing only: to keep talking. As people around the world shelter from record-smashing heat, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry ended three days of dialogue with Chinese counterparts on how to burn less coal, develop cleaner energy and cut methane emissions. They didn’t walk away with a joint statement, as Sara Schonhardt writes. But after a year of escalating tensions around security and trade, the geopolitical rivals promised to return to the table before this November’s global climate talks in Dubai — a major step as the world confronts heat waves, rising ocean temperatures and the prospect of more superstorms. The history of relatively open U.S.-China dialogue around climate issues, particularly under Democratic administrations, has been lost in the nations’ heightened military and economic competition. Beijing put the brakes on climate talks with Washington in August 2022 after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. “We came to Beijing in order to unstick what has been stuck for almost a year,” Kerry said in a briefing earlier today, “and that's the in-person dialogue between the United States and China.” What next: The U.S. wanted an agreement to fully split off climate change discussions from the nations’ other conflicts and diplomatic challenges. But China agreeing to such a deal during this trip was always unlikely, Zack Colman writes. Kerry, a former secretary of State, has faced Republican pressure to take a hard line on China, which burns more coal than all other countries combined. In China, optics are also important. “The key is for China to see these actions as serving its self-interest,” said Li Shuo, a senior policy analyst with Greenpeace East Asia. China’s stand: President Xi Jinping told Communist Party leaders the nation’s commitment to addressing climate change is unchanged. “But the path, method, pace and intensity to achieve this goal should and must be determined by ourselves, and will never be influenced by others,” Xi said, according to a story dated Tuesday by Chinese state news agency Xinhua. The U.S. and China account for nearly 40 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Analysts say the fact that they’re engaging at all is a sign of progress. U.S.-China agreements have been major drivers for climate action in the past. Yet Kerry, perhaps, knows better than most that the U.S.-China relationship is delicate. It can turn frosty fast, and the topsy-turvy outcomes of American politics can throw it all into a tailspin. Just consider everything that’s happened since the U.S. and China locked arms in Paris in 2015.
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