Kerry to visit China ahead of White House climate summit

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry will become the first Biden administration official to visit China as the U.S. attempts to enlist the world’s top greenhouse gas emitter in efforts to reduce international emissions.

In a statement Tuesday, a State Department spokesperson said Kerry will visit Shanghai and Seoul from April 14 to April 17 and discuss “raising global climate ambition” with South Korean and Chinese leaders. The trip will come days before an April 22 White House climate summit, where President Biden is set to announce the new emissions target under the Paris climate agreement. Biden reentered the pact after former President Trump withdrew the U.S. from it.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae-in are among the 40 world leaders who have been invited to Washington for the meeting.

The announcement of Kerry’s meeting comes as he has emphasized the necessity of cooperation from Beijing for nations to meet emissions reduction targets. Last week, during a diplomatic trip to India, Kerry told reporters he was “hopeful [but] not confident at this point” about Chinese cooperation.

He sounded a similar note during a visit to the United Arab Emirates, saying that diplomatic tension between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Chinese counterparts would not affect climate talks.

“President Biden has made it clear, and I’ve made it clear: None of the other issues we have with China — and there are issues — is held hostage to or is engaged in a trade for what we need to do on climate,” Kerry said earlier this month. The remarks came shortly after the U.S. announced sanctions against China over human rights violations against the Uyghur ethnic minority.

China has announced a target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2060. Kerry has emphasized that the U.S. cannot singlehandedly address climate change without collaboration from Beijing.

“If the United States were to go to zero tomorrow, we would still have a massive problem of climate crisis. That’s because China is 30 percent and going up,” he said in late March.

Updated at 3:10 p.m.