Editor's note: U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry has wrapped up his visit to China. His trip marks the formal resumption in top-level climate diplomacy between China and the United States. We talked to Helen Clarkson, CEO of the international non-profit organization The Climate Group, about Kerry's trip and the future of China-U.S. cooperation on climate. The views expressed in the video are his own and not necessarily those of CGTN.

Hey guys, welcome to Reality Check. I'm Huang Jiyuan. U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry has wrapped up his visit to China. His trip marks the formal resumption in top-level climate diplomacy between China and the United States. 

In his meeting with Chinese senior diplomat Wang Yi, Kerry said that "our hope is now that this could be the beginning of a new definition of collaboration and the capacity to resolve the differences between us." Now, that's not a new sentiment, right? Since perhaps the start of Biden's presidency, people have been discussing how climate could be the silver bullet to the contentious China-U.S. relationship. But still, when former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made her ill-advised trip to China's Taiwan region, climate dialogue was halted.

So, what's different this time? Just how probable could China and the U.S. go forward on climate cooperation while insulating it from political conflicts? We've talked to Helen Clarkson, CEO of the international non-profit organization The Climate Group. And here's how she sees it.

Edited excerpts:

Helen Clarkson: I think it's really encouraging that this trip has happened. When we look back, something like the Paris Agreement came about, because the U.S. and China got together, were collaborating, and they really pushed for that to happen. And we know that collectively they're responsible for 40 percent of global emissions. So really the whole world looks at both the U.S. and China in order to decide what to do. So, leadership from the two countries is really important. So, I think it's really promising that this has happened. We're starting to see these conversations start again. I would really love to see that continue as we go into climate week in New York, COP28 and other important moments this year.

If you look at COP28 this year, the critical issues there are going to be phasing out fossil fuels, the transition to renewables. Both the U.S. and China are very well placed on that transition. The huge exports from China on renewable is really, really vital to the rest of the world. So, both countries very well placed on that issue. And then the other issue that's going to come up a lot is climate finance. Again, both countries have diplomatic relations and finance simulations that can help. So, I think if we can get into the specifics that will really ground these conversations. So, we need to move away at this stage or at the kind of big general statements about what we want to do. We now need to get into some of the specifics on these really difficult climate topics, maybe get some sort of backing to some of the agreements that are happening at the moment.

CGTN: Since you brought up the renewables. So, I just want to ask you this, China made the pledge to reach carbon neutrality by 2060. But after the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been some doubts about this. I mean probably not just on China, but around the world, whether the world can reach their designated goals. So, do you see China or the world on course of reaching that? And maybe what are some of the biggest obstacles?

Helen Clarkson: So China's commitment is to peak emissions in 2030 and get to carbon neutrality by 2060. Obviously, we'd like that go a bit quicker. We know the world needs to get to net zero by 2050. The one thing I would say is historically, China has set targets and then hit them. And I think that it tends to set these maybe slightly less ambitious targets, but actually hit them, versus other bits of the world where you might see kind of incredibly ambitious targets and then going slow.

And so it kind of ends out the same. In the early phases of COVID-19, obviously emissions dipped. And now we are in this kind of phase afterwards when they're going back up again. So, I think those sorts of issues play out really differently. But I think that China typically sets kind of quite strict plans and then works to hit them. So, I'm not too worried about hitting the goal that's been set. I'm more worried that that goal is a bit far out and are there things that can happen and bring it forward. That said, we have seen things like production of renewable. In China, the huge manufacturing has then led to much quicker effects elsewhere in the world. So, I think it's going to get interesting as we get into some of the new technologies that we need. Do we get those sorts of rebound effects again?

We're seeing all these extreme weather events right around the world at the moment in Beijing, Italy was in the news this morning, the whole of the Mediterranean region really, U.S., wildfires in Canada. I mean, the whole northern hemisphere I'd say at the moment. So, that should show us the urgency. I think the impact of climate has clearly started. And the world, the weather systems are telling us we need to go much faster. 

And that's really the key issue that underlies all of this, the pace at which we need to change, the changes we need to make which are incredibly deep. We've got to decarbonize everything. We've got to decarbonize steel, one of the things we work on, decarbonize concrete, all these very technical things. And we are running out of time. So, I think the biggest single issue is actually time. And that's why it's important. We've been talking about to move climate out of the kind of very immediate day-to-day political agenda, and onto much more stable footing of cooperation, speed and urgency.

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