When Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew host their Chinese counterparts June 23–24, climate change will top the agenda.
The Chinese delegation to the seventh U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue will be led by State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Vice Premier Wang Yang.
The United States and China established the dialogue in 2009. Expanding on existing annual talks that had focused on economic issues only, the dialogue aims to create a cooperative relationship between two nations that have so much influence on global economic and environmental issues, including efforts to combat climate change.
On November 12, 2014, the United States and China announced an agreement under which the United States would cut its greenhouse gas emissions by up to 28 percent by 2025, bringing U.S. emissions to levels below those of 2005. China set a goal for its emissions to peak by 2030 and said clean-energy sources, such as solar and wind, will account for 20 percent of its energy production by 2030.
“As the world’s two largest economies, energy consumers and emitters of greenhouse gases, we have a special responsibility to lead the global effort against climate change,” President Obama said in Beijing.
The 2015 dialogue comes “at a time of some importance in terms of what has been going on in the region as well as conceivably some of the interests that we have with respect to trade, economy, and other interests,” Kerry said June 16. “I’m confident that we’re going to have a full-throated discussion of all of the issues that confront us.”
The State Department announced June 15 that the 2015 dialogue will focus on “addressing the challenges and opportunities that both countries face on a wide range of bilateral, regional and global areas of immediate and long-term economic and strategic interest.”
