China, John Kerry has explained, is crucial to fighting climate change.
Take this story from September.
NPR:
China needs to expand its efforts to reduce carbon emissions to help hold back the rise in global temperatures, U.S. envoy John Kerry said Thursday.
The State Department said Kerry told Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng in a virtual meeting that there is “no way” for the world to solve the climate crisis without China’s “full engagement and commitment.”
China is the world’s largest carbon emitter, producing an estimated 27% of global greenhouse gases, followed by the United States.
Kerry is in the eastern Chinese port city of Tianjin for talks on stronger efforts to curb rising temperatures to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels.
And not even a little thing like forced labor (or worse) was going to get in the way of Kerry’s push to win Beijing over.
US special climate envoy John Kerry sidestepped a question about China’s use of slave labor during the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference on Wednesday, saying the issue was “not my lane.”
Kerry was responding to a query from a reporter who asked the former secretary of state if he had mentioned human rights issues — including Beijing’s “use of forced labor in Xinjiang for building solar panels” — during recent meetings with Chinese leaders.
“Well, we’re honest. We’re honest about the differences, and we certainly know what they are and we’ve articulated them, but that’s not my lane here,” Kerry said. “That’s — my job is to be the climate guy, and stay focused on trying to move the climate agenda forward.”
So, how’s that going?
Well, here’s just the latest in a long series of stories (this one via Bloomberg) showing how seriously China takes the White House’s “special climate envoy”:
China will cut import tariffs for coal to zero from May to the end of March to help guarantee energy supplies, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement.
Current tariffs range from 3% to 6% depending on the type of coal, the ministry said in a statement dated April 26 and posted to its website Thursday. China’s coal imports are down 24% through the end of March this year as global prices have soared . . .