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July 13 (UPI) -- John Kerry, the U.S. special climate envoy, testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday and discussed his upcoming climate change talks with China. Kerry will become the latest official from the administration of President Joe Biden to meet with Chinese officials when he travels to Beijing next week.
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"What we're trying to achieve now is really to establish some stability," Kerry told a subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"I'm not going over with any concessions. What we're trying to do is find ways we can cooperate to actually address the crisis, because China is the world's second-largest economy, and, as the world's largest emitter, is critical to our being able to solve this problem."
Kerry's trip marks the restart of discussions about climate change between the United States and China, the two nations that contribute the most greenhouse emissions that contribute to the globe's rising temperatures. However, the talks come amid political tensions over human rights issues, intellectual property theft and other challenges.
"It's clear from the science and the mounting evidence around the world that one of the most existential threats that we face that impacts every single member of Congress, every single family in our country, in the world, comes from the growing climate crisis," Kerry said.
"We're beyond just climate change, frankly. I don't refer to it as that anymore. It is only a massive crisis."
Kerry, in his remarks, added that "every single extreme weather event comes with a big bill that we pay, not to invest in technology, not to advance new jobs in the sector, but just to clean up the mess."
Appealing to the Republicans on the committee, Kerry said there are economic opportunities from seeking to address climate change and noted the United States has built on the Abraham Accords, agreements brokered by the administration of former President Donald Trump, to "support energy integration and resilience in the Middle East."
"No country can solve the climate crisis alone," Kerry said. "This requires multilateralism automatically."
Republicans pushed Kerry to get China to drop its claim it is a developing nation, which it uses to justify burning more coal without scrutiny.
"I don't like the idea of holding China to a different standard than the United States, and that will be your great challenge when you go to Beijing, to hold them to the same standard as the United States," Foreign Affairs Chair Michael McCaul of Texas said.
Kerry noted that data from the International Energy Agency shows China will outpace the rest of the world in generating renewable power by 2030 but that he did not anticipate much progress from his talks with China about coal.
"Every step this administration has taken is really to support our national security," Kerry said, "to strengthen our economy, to leave behind a safer place for our kids and grandkids."
