China’s Xi pushes back US on carbon neutrality

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – Reiterating China’s commitment to actions on carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, President Xi Jinping said the path towards the goals must be determined by the country itself.

China's commitments on carbon neutrality “are unswerving,” Xi said Tuesday, addressing a two-day national conference on ecological and environmental protection, according to Beijing-based Xinhua News.

“But the path towards the goals as well as the manner, pace, and intensity of efforts to achieve them should and must be determined by the country itself, rather than swayed by others,” said Xi.

His comments came as the US president’s climate envoy, John Kerry, is concluding his four-day trip to China on Wednesday.

Kerry met Chinese Premier Li Qiang, the country’s foreign affairs chief Wang Yi, and China’s climate change envoy Xie Zhenhua.

In his meeting with Wang, Kerry emphasized how “critical it is for China to increase its ambition and accelerate the reduction of emissions.”

A statement from the US State Department said: “Kerry stressed that the world expects both nations to cooperate on climate and reaffirmed that the United States and the PRC (People’s Republic of China) cannot let bilateral differences stand in the way of making concrete progress on shared transnational challenges.”

“Enhanced action by the PRC to accelerate decarbonization, reduce methane emissions, and address deforestation is essential for the world to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius,” said Kerry, who landed in Beijing on Sunday.