By Valerie Volcovici and Liz Lee
WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s former veteran climate envoy, who previously secured two pivotal climate agreements with the United States, will meet with the EU’s top green transition official on Tuesday to resuscitate flailing international climate negotiations ahead of the COP30 summit in Brazil, three sources told Reuters.
Xie Zhenhua, who retired at the end of COP28 climate talks in Dubai in late 2023, will visit Brussels on September 16 to meet with Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president of the European Commission for a Clean, Just, and Competitive Transition.
He will urge the EU to announce more ambitious climate goals and coordinate joint diplomatic efforts ahead of a preliminary climate meeting at U.N. headquarters on September 24.
The meeting is meant to give a boost to the COP30 climate summit that will begin in November in Belem, Brazil, two sources familiar with the meeting told Reuters. The summit is facing potentially low attendance due to the shortage and cost of hotel rooms as well as the withdrawal of the world’s largest emitter, the United States, from the negotiating process.
Three sources said Xie will meet with Ribera, who he has known for a long time, but they could not confirm whether the meeting will be official or yield a joint statement or agreement.
Two of the sources said ecology minister Huang Runqiu will also attend the meeting but not current climate envoy Liu Zhenmin.
The U.N. is seeking to pressure major economies including the EU and China ahead of Belem. Last week it urged countries to set more ambitious national climate plans in September to advance previous goals pledged under the 2015 Paris agreement, known as Nationally Determined Contributions.
The EU has been struggling to agree on its plan, and this month countries including France and Poland called for a delay in approving the bloc’s proposed 2040 goal.
China is expected to announce its new NDC by September 24, two sources told Reuters.
The U.S. and China had previously delivered big wins in climate diplomacy through the unique relationship of Xie and his U.S. counterparts John Kerry and Todd Stern, but under President Donald Trump the U.S.-China relationship has returned to one defined by trade tension and national security competition over AI.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici and Liz Lee, additional reporting by Kate Abnett in Brussels; Editing by Nia Williams)
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