U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry is set to visit China from July 16 to 19, according to China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

The two sides will have an in-depth exchange of views on working together to address climate change, a statement issued by the ministry on Wednesday said. 

Kerry and Chinese officials will discuss increasing the implementation and ambition of tackling the climate crisis, and promoting a successful 2023 UN Climate Change Conference (COP28), according to the U.S. State Department.

Kerry's trip to China, the third time in a month by a high-level U.S. official, has significant meaning for both global climate governance and China-U.S. relations, according to experts.

Key climate issues to be discussed

Kerry's trip to Beijing comes as record-breaking heat waves are sweeping across the world.

Early July saw the hottest global temperature ever recorded and an oncoming El Niño is likely to keep upward pressure on global temperatures, the World Meteorological Organization warned last week.

Noting climate change is a global challenge and requires a global response, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said China hopes the U.S. can work with it to create enabling conditions and an atmosphere for China-U.S. climate cooperation. The spokesperson noted that the two countries had sound cooperation on climate change and jointly facilitated the conclusion and coming into effect of the Paris Agreement.

One of the highlights of Kerry's visit is expected to be in-depth discussions between China and the U.S. on key climate issues, Chen Ying, lead researcher from the Research Center for Sustainable Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in a commentary on Friday.

She added that the issues on the agenda will likely include progress in emission reductions, advancing adaptation goals, assessing the implementation of finance, and exploring the issues of a just transformation toward low-carbon and green growth, which will set the stage for the forthcoming UN climate conference scheduled to take place in the United Arab Emirates later this year.

Mentioning his "potential meeting in China," Kerry told the U.S. media outlet CNN in May there were three top issues on his agenda – China's implementation of its plan to cut emissions of super-polluting methane, demonstrating it can move away from coal faster and working with the U.S. on the issue of deforestation.

According to Chen, Kerry may discuss with Chinese officials how to implement a joint declaration issued by the two countries at the Glasgow 2021 climate conference, where both sides pledged to cooperate on reducing methane emissions, which will contribute to global temperature control.

Potential as China-U.S. icebreaker

Climate talks, along with other high-level exchanges between China and the U.S., were suspended after U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to China's Taiwan region in disregard of stern warnings from the Chinese side in August last year.

However, after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited China, Kerry's trip is seen as a natural next step, according to experts.

A former secretary of state, Kerry was named as U.S. President Joe Biden's climate envoy in 2021. He visited China twice the same year, making him the first high-ranking official in the Biden administration to do so. The latest trip is Kerry's third visit to China during his tenure. Early this year, he held talks with China's Special Envoy for Climate Change Xie Zhenhua via video.

During his first trip in April, he and Xie released the U.S.-China Joint Statement Addressing the Climate Crisis, highlighting eight areas for future action on emissions reductions by both sides.

The BBC commented on the trip that it signaled the U.S. desire to cooperate with China on this issue at a time of high tensions between the two countries, avoiding competition and confrontation that would completely erode the space for cooperation between the two countries.

In response to Kerry's second trip in September 2021, the Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that China and the U.S. have differences on a number of issues, but they share common interests in a wide range of areas such as climate change. It called on both sides to bring bilateral ties back on track through dialogue and cooperation.

"Climate change plays a very unique and important role in China-U.S. relations, which, like trade and economy, has been recognized as an area where both sides have common interests and can cooperate in depth,”said Chen.

Now, the climate issue may play the role of an icebreaker in the relationship between the two countries, she noted.

(Cover: U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 13, 2023. /CFP)