China’s climate envoy says expects cooperation with U.S. to continue

China’s top climate negotiator Xie Zhenhua said on Saturday he expects to continue direct cooperation on climate change with his U.S. counterpart John Kerry after the COP27 summit taking place in Egypt comes to a close.
China and the United States are the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases and cooperation between them is seen as vital to international efforts to avert the worst impacts of climate change.
China’s President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden had agreed to restart cooperation on climate change earlier this week after a months-long hiatus due to tensions over Taiwan.
Xie said he had met with Kerry at the COP27 climate summit as time allowed in the wider negotiations, according to a recording of a briefing Xie gave to a handful of journalists, reviewed by Reuters. He added that there was still much to be discussed between the two countries and results of the talks could only be announced at a later date.
The Chinese negotiator said the conversations with the United States were “candid, friendly, positive and active” and that “overall it’s been very positive”.