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US Renews Call for All Nations to Raise Climate Ambitions

Nike Ching

   WASHINGTON - The United States is renewing a call that all nations
   including the U.S. and China "must raise their ambitions" on carbon
   neutrality, as officials from the world's two largest emitters held
   talks in Shanghai on Thursday.

   U.S. officials and analysts say Special Presidential Envoy for Climate
   John Kerry's consultations with his Chinese counterparts this week are
   paving the way for next week's virtual [1]Leaders Summit on Climate,
   but caution against a quick breakthrough.

   "We must insist Beijing do more to reduce emissions and help tackle the
   worldwide climate crisis," said a State Department spokespersonwho
   spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity.

   The spokesperson added China "is not yet on a path that will allow the
   world to meet the Paris Agreement's goal of holding the increase in the
   global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius and pursue
   efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius."

   "Of course, it's not going to be easy," said Jane Nakano,a senior
   fellow in the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the
   Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

   Nakano said Thursday that many countries, not just the U.S., "are
   hoping to see much more clear articulation [on]how China plans on
   reducing its emissions level."

   In Beijing, officials gave few details on Kerry's talks with China's
   special envoy on climate change, Xie Zhenhua.

   "I don't have any information to offer," Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson
   from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Thursday.

   Chinese President Xi Jinping is among the 40 world leaders invited to
   attend the climate summit on April 22-23.

   The invitation comes as relations between Beijing and Washington are at
   their most strained for decades because ofclashes over Xinjiang, Hong
   Kong, Taiwan, the South China Sea, regional securityand China's
   economic coercion of U.S. allies.

   In a recent interview with TheWall Street Journal, Kerry said the U.S.
   is not wrapping the climate issue into talks on other topics that the
   U.S. and China disagree on.

   "We're not trading something to do with the planet and health and
   security for something else that's more of a political or ideological
   difference or a practical difference in the marketplace," said Kerry.

   Some analysts say the Biden administration is so far separating its
   concerns about climate change from the region's key issues such as
   China's reported human rights violations and increasing territorial
   aggression.

   "I see no evidence of" the U.S. compromising its geopolitical
   competition with China while seeking a cooperation on climate change,
   said Mike Green,senior vice president for Asia and Japan Chair at CSIS
   and a former White House National Security Council staffer.

   Green said he is not ruling out a possible pull-aside virtual meeting
   between Biden and Xi.

   "We have a big agenda with China," Green said Thursday. "My guess is
   probably that there will be a pull-aside" virtual meeting in a
   businesslike fashion.

References

   1. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/26/president-biden-invites-40-world-leaders-to-leaders-summit-on-climate/