John Podesta is expected to push for China to set more ambitious greenhouse gas targets.
John Podesta, President Biden’s top climate diplomat, is traveling to Beijing on Tuesday where he is expected to press Chinese leaders to make more ambitious plans to cut the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change.
The three-day trip, confirmed by the State Department, is widely viewed as one of the last opportunities before the November election for the Biden administration to exert pressure on China to act more aggressively on global warming.
“There is a stalemate on climate engagement between the U.S. and China,” Alan Yu, the senior vice president for international policy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal research organization, said recently. “We don’t have a lot of time to really change that.”
Mr. Podesta plans to talk with his counterpart, Liu Zhenmin, as well as with ministers who oversee China’s coal development and renewable energy production. He is also expected to meet with Xie Zhenhua, a retired senior climate envoy who remains involved in diplomacy.
Climate experts said they hoped the trip would help pave the way for climate to get space on the agenda if Mr. Biden and President Xi Jinping of China meet during the Group of 20 summit talks in November.
The trip will be Mr. Podesta’s first visit to China since he took the role of chief United States climate negotiator after John Kerry resigned from the position this year.