MANILA — China understands the urgent need to address the climate crisis and will work for quick transition to use of cleaner energy, US climate envoy John Kerry said Wednesday.

In a digital press briefing, Kerry said he had constructive talks with Chinese officials during his 2-day visit to Beijing despite ongoing tensions between the two countries.

Kerry had meetings with Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng, China's top diplomat Wang Yi, and Premier Li Qiang, as well as veteran climate envoy Xie Zhenhua in a bid to rebuild trust between the two sides ahead of COP28 climate talks in Dubai at the end of the year.

• Kerry says climate change requires 'new definition' of China-US cooperation

While several political issues were brought up during their conversations, the heat wave now hitting parts of Asia, the US, and Europe was also tackled, as it made many countries, including China, realize the urgency of working together to address the climate crisis.

“(They) were clear about some of their concerns with respect to security and the marketplace and some of the tensions that are existing between the United States and some other issues. People were frank about it," said Kerry.

"But at the same time, they embraced the criticality of moving with urgency to deal with the climate crisis because I think they recognize that it is a threat to everything else that everybody is trying to do,” he added.

The US official said that one of the areas they will work on is the acceleration of China’s transition to cleaner energy.

While Kerry lauded China’s growing effort to harness renewable energy, he pointed out how it has built new coal plants to accommodate the power demands of its economy and population.

“China fully understands the challenge of moving from unabated coal dependency and trying to harness the best energies of the new energy economy in the future. But that’s a big job and we all understand it,” he said.

“One of the topics of conversation we had here in Beijing, and we’ll continue, is how do we all help accelerate a transition in a way that doesn’t cripple an economy or reduce people’s ability to use some of the things they need today.”

Kerry said his team and their Chinese counterparts will continue to meet intensively to make sure they are on the same page.

This is the first time that officials from the world’s top two emitters sat down again for climate talks since August of 2022 when the visit of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, a democratically governed island that China claims, sparked tensions between the two countries.

• China 'impossible to contain,' Beijing's top diplomat tells Kissinger

RELATED VIDEO

Watch more News on iWantTFC