Sawt Falasteen - Kerry says US not dictating climate policy to China

At the end of a three-day trip to Beijing to restart bilateral climate discussion, Kerry told reporters on a conference call that he and his team had "extremely warm and productive meetings" with senior Chinese officials during the visit.

He admitted there were no breakthroughs in the discussions, which seek to build an agenda for the UN COP 28 climate conference in December.

But he said none of his Chinese counterparts expressed concerns about the United States pushing them on ways to deal with climate change.

A day earlier, Xi addressed a separate conference on the environment in Beijing and said China must chart its own course on carbon emissions.

"We must make the decisions on our own when it comes to the path, methods, pace, and intensity to achieve them. No one should expect to exert influence on us," the Chinese president said, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.

He did not mention Kerry or the United States by name, according to the Xinhua report, and the US envoy was not in the audience during the address.

Asked about the comments Wednesday, Kerry said: "We're not involved in dictating anything to anybody. We're involved in following the science."

Kerry, who met with China's top diplomat Wang Yi, Chinese premier Li Qiang, Vice President Han Zheng and his climate policy counterpart Xie Zhenhua, said Xi's comments were not reflected in his talks.

"There's no politics or ideology in what we're doing," Kerry said.

"None of the leaders I met with suggested that there was any reason we shouldn't be coordinating the way we are, working together the way we are, with mutual respect."

Kerry said his discussions covered a lot of ground after a long break in bilateral climate talks.

The two-way discussions were cut off last year after Beijing took offence at a visit to Taiwan by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. China sees Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification.

- 'Mutual alarm' -

The veteran US politician and diplomat said there was "mutual alarm" between the US and Chinese sides, the world's two largest polluters, at the current climate situation.

He said that he had hoped to break new ground on combatting warming in the talks.

But after "frank conversations," Kerry said the US side "realised that it's going to take a little bit more work to break the new ground."

"So we've agreed that we're going to meet intensively," he said.

There was no joint statement on the talks.

But Kerry said the two sides focused on how to make COP 28, scheduled for December in Dubai, a success, and on how to craft national targets to be submitted in 2025.

Both sides agreed to hone in on integrating renewable energy into the power sector in order to reduce coal emissions.

They also agreed to focus on non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions, particularly methane, he said.

Kerry said US and Chinese officials will meet again within a few weeks.

"We agreed to work together towards ambitious and agreed outcomes at the COP 28" and other international fora, he said.

P.Tamimi--SF-PST