US climate envoy John Kerry wants China to contribute to fund for climate-hit nations

BUCHAREST – China and other “large economies” need to play a global role in helping poorer countries cope with the impacts of climate change, said Mr John Kerry, the United States’ special presidential envoy for climate, on Thursday. 

“If they want to be global economies, they need to act like global economies,” Mr Kerry said when asked if China should contribute to a “loss and damage” fund to help the poorest nations cope with climate-fuelled disasters such as floods and droughts.

“I have not heard that China is reluctant at this point to participate in the loss and damage fund, and it’s important for the large economies to play a global role,” he added.

Mr Kerry spoke in an interview with Bloomberg News in Bucharest, where he was attending the Three Seas Initiative Business Forum. 

At 2022’s United Nations climate summit in Egypt,

delegates agreed to create a loss and damage fund,

although almost all of the details still need to be ironed out.

It is unclear how much of that will be decided at the next UN summit, COP28, to be held in Dubai at the end of November.

Mr Kerry said this COP will need to deal not only with the thorny issues around loss and damage, but also a stocktake on how far off countries are from meeting climate targets set at UN talks in Paris eight years ago.

In 2015, countries agreed to work towards capping global warming since pre-industrial times to well below 2 deg C – aiming for 1.5 deg C – by the end of the century.

“The purpose of the COP is to find common ground,” he said.

“I’m not going to pre-judge it; we have a lot of work to do and a lot of people still need to come to the table, and I think the world will be watching what every country is doing very, very carefully.”

BLOOMBERG