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CHINA’S Environment Minister Huang Runqiu said today that his country was keen to strengthen co-operation with the United States on combating climate change.
He was speaking during a meeting in Beijing with California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Mr Newsom is on a week-long tour of China, where he is pushing for closer co-operation to tackle the climate emergency.
Relations between the two countries have deteriorated in recent years over the United States imposing trade sanctions on China, interfering in the breakaway Chinese region of Taiwan and carrying out aggressive military manoeuvres in the region.
Mr Huang said today that his ministry would continue to implement agreements under a memorandum of understanding signed last year between China and California “in carbon market investment, climate adaptation, environment law implementation and human-to-human exchange to strengthen co-operation and have a positive effect on China-US environmental co-operation.”
Mr Newsom said: “We recognise the limits of subnational leadership. We need more partners. And I’m here in that light and in that spirit of partnership and also humility, recognising we don’t have all the answers.”
Both sides spoke about a rise in extreme weather in their countries.
On Wednesday, California and China issued a declaration pledging to work together to combat climate change, including through offshore wind power, advanced energy storage technologies and zero-emission vehicles, according to the text.
Mr Newsom met Chinese President Xi Jinping the same day, as well as other senior leaders including top diplomat Wang Yi and Vice-President Han Zheng.
The California governor has highlighted climate change as an area in which both sides need to co-operate, as it concerns the survival and future of humanity.
Governors of the US state, which has an economy larger than most countries, have a long history of climate collaboration with Beijing.
Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger both visited China and Mr Brown also met Mr Xi in 2017.
