China (Washington Insider Magazine)—Recently, The U.S. and China have achieved significant successes in climate diplomacy through the unique relationship of their chief climate delegates. However, the two countries are heading toward change as the Chinese envoy is about to retire and the U.S. is heading for an election.
In an interview with Reuters, U.S. Special Climate Envoy John Kerry was ambiguous about his plans for the future.
“No matter what, I am going to try to do what works best,” he said after last week’s U.N. climate summit, COP28, in Dubai. “I haven’t made any decisions about anything, and I will continue as long as God gives me the breath and work on it [climate] one way or the other.”
The COP28 summit’s conclusive deal also witnessed the last official action by Kerry’s longtime partner. China’s ailing 75-year-old climate diplomat, Xie Zhenhua, directed China’s international climate talks for 16 years.
The deal’s victory came partly from a U.S.-China proposal, brokered by the two sides a month earlier during a bilateral discussion in California. In that so-called Sunnylands agreement, Kerry and Xie dodged a controversial call to “phase out” fossil fuels. They used a new phrase that essentially meant the same thing – “accelerate the substitution for coal, oil, and gas generation.”
That new phrasing, used alongside a joint commitment to promote renewable energy, evolved into the COP28 deal. It is a central call for countries to triple renewable energy ability to ” transition away from fossil fuels.”
Kerry informed Reuters that the Sunnylands pact was “fundamental” at COP28. We “created something different in the air.”
That unique U.S.-China collaboration on climate change has also been vital in driving climate action globally. Both states’ policies, set in the world’s two largest economies and biggest polluters, can affect energy trends internationally.
However, the pace could be challenged if Kerry’s boss, President Joe Biden, fails next year’s U.S. election. With the Elections still months away, Biden’s most influential challenge comes from former President Donald Trump. He is considered a vocal climate denier who hampered U.S. climate diplomacy for years.
“Despite the divergent national interests they represent, Kerry and Xie share the firm belief that to solve the climate crisis, the U.S. and China need to engage with each other,” said Li Shuo, incoming director of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society. “For the ones coming after them, the drive will be bumpy,” Li said.
Whatever the White House host will be, China is preparing a new climate diplomacy action. Further, he anticipates announcing Xie’s replacement as the English-speaking diplomat Liu Zhenmin. He once functioned as China’s deputy foreign minister.
Liu later revealed to the Chinese financial news outlet Caijing that he had participated in COP28 as “an old comrade” in climate talks and conveyed the wider negotiating team.
“Our negotiators are very young, and this is a good thing,” he is quoted as saying in the interview published on Monday. “Addressing climate change requires not only old comrades, but also for the young generation to participate more and better.”
Kerry also has a foreign policy background, serving as President Obama’s U.S. Secretary of State.
Foreign policy issues have previously ignored climate relations, most notably in 2021. Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan as the House Speaker and expressed U.S. support for the self-governing island claimed by China.
However, the two sides continued to talk about climate, with Kerry demanding to separate the issue from other conflicts. However, China and Liu have said that climate talks cannot be a diplomatic “oasis.”
Kerry highlighted his achievements with Xie, a Communist Party technocrat with a background in engineering.
The warmness between Kerry and Xie built over 60 face-to-face meetings. It allowed broker deals, including the 2015 Paris and bilateral agreements. It enabled countries to agree at COP26 in Glasgow to “phase down” coal use. “We did more than plant the seeds for future cooperation,” Kerry told Reuters.
“We created a working group. We agreed to a process and created an institutional structure,” he said. “There is a process in place going forward.”
China’s retiring diplomat Xie aimed to reassure at COP28 that the obligation to climate cooperation remained strong. He believed that it “also played a role in improving the complicated bilateral relationship between China and the United States.”
“Neither of us will leave this community or depart from this great cause,” Xie told reporters in a summit briefing. “Both of us will continue to make contributions and efforts to bring this process forward.”