Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to attend a virtual climate summit that US President Joe Biden is hosting today and tomorrow, as the world’s top polluting nations seek rare common ground despite wider political tensions.
Biden has invited 40 world leaders, including Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, to the Earth Day meet meant to mark Washington’s return to the front lines of the fight against climate change, after former US president Donald Trump disengaged from the process.
The virtual summit is to be the first meeting between the leaders of the two countries since Biden became president.
Photo: AFP / US embassy in Seoul
Xi is to give an “important speech” at the meeting, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, days after a trip to Shanghai by US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry — the first official from Biden’s administration to visit China.
Kerry and Chinese Special Envoy on Climate Change Xie Zhenhua (解振華) had said that they were “committed to cooperating” on tackling the climate crisis, even as sky-high tensions remain on multiple other fronts.
Washington and Beijing’s pledge to cooperate comes amid acrimony over accusations about China’s policies in Hong Kong and its treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang — criticisms that Beijing rejects as interference in its domestic affairs.
No global solution on climate change is likely without both the US and China on board, since the world’s top two economies together account for nearly half of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
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