US Climate Envoy John Kerry Talks Coal and Methane in China

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry was in Beijing on Monday, the latest American official to visit China in hopes of repairing relations between the testy adversaries.

Kerry met with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua for the first time in nearly a year. The climate envoys for the world’s two biggest emitters of greenhouse gasses will talk amid ongoing disputes over Taiwan, trade, and the South China Sea. 

"In the next three days we hope we can begin taking some big steps that will send a signal to the world about the serious purpose of China and the United States to address a common risk, threat, challenge to all of humanity created by humans themselves," Kerry said.

The meeting comes during a spell of severe weather events including emergency heat warnings Italy, Greece and the United States, and flooding in the U.S. Northeast, South Korea, and India. 

Kerry is the third high-ranking U.S. official to visit China in the last month, following Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Kerry is expected to push China to reduce its reliance on coal and to set emission targets on methane that – along with carbon dioxide – is a main contributor to the earth’s warming climate.

"Floods and intensive storms happen with greater frequency than ever before ... Fires devour millions of acres of forest every year," Kerry, a former secretary of state, told delegates gathered in a conference room overlooking Beijing's Forbidden City on Monday morning, Reuters reported.

"It is toxic for both Chinese and for Americans – and for people in every country on the planet."