US climate envoy John Kerry will visit China this week in the first trip there by the Biden administration, seeking to raise global ambitions despite soaring tensions with Beijing on other fronts.

The former secretary of state will visit Shanghai as well as the South Korean capital Seoul on a trip starting Wednesday, the State Department confirmed.

His trip comes in preparation for President Joe Biden's virtual climate summit next week to which the US leader has invited both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We have big disagreements with China on some key issues, absolutely. But climate has to stand alone," Kerry told CNN.

If refusing to work together on climate, "you're just killing yourself, you're going be hurting your own people," he said.

Kerry said that Xi had not yet confirmed whether he would take part in the summit.

With global temperatures and natural disasters on the rise, Biden has made climate a top priority, turning the page from his predecessor Donald Trump, who was closely aligned with the fossil fuel industry.

Biden has rejoined the 2015 Paris accord, which Kerry negotiated as secretary of state and committed nations to take action to keep temperature rises at no more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

With the world badly off track to meeting the goal, Biden hopes that the summit will result in stronger pledges in advance of UN-led climate talks in Glasgow at the end of the year.

Kerry, who has already traveled on his climate push to European allies, India, Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates, noted that he worked closely with China on the Paris accord.

"We hope that China will come to the table and lead. President Xi has talked about leadership, about China's role in this. We want to work with China in doing this," Kerry said in an earlier interview with India Today.

No global solution is likely without both the United States and China, the world's top two economies which together account for nearly half of the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change.

China alone produces almost 30 percent of carbon emissions, far more than any country, after decades of rapid industrialization.

But Xi has promised that China's emissions will peak by 2030, part of a major push to clean up the environment.

Biden is also hoping to carry out far-reaching efforts to transform the US economy toward green energy, a key emphasis of his $2 trillion infrastructure package proposed to Congress.

Biden has identified climate as well as global health as among narrow areas in which the United States will seek to work with China.

Kerry's trip comes despite a testy initial meeting last month in Alaska between two top Biden officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken with their Chinese counterparts.

The two sides clashed over US accusations that China is rampantly stealing intellectual property, aggressively asserting itself against its neighbors, violating promises of freedoms to Hong Kong and carrying out genocide against Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities in the western Xinjiang region.

UN climate talks must go ahead in June even if online: UK
Paris (AFP) April 13, 2021 - UN climate talks must go ahead in June even if negotiations are held virtually, Britain's president of the COP26 summit said Tuesday, despite "valid concerns" over the lack of in-person dialogue.

In an open letter to countries party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Alok Sharma said a formal session of technical talks was needed to lay the groundwork for the "unprecedented" to do list at COP26, set for November in Glasgow.

He said that Covid-19 restrictions would likely mean the session, which is traditionally held at UNFCCC headquarters in the German city of Bonn, would likely take place online.

This is despite concerns raised by several countries that virtual talks could prejudice their position as equal parties to richer emitters at the crucial negotiations.

"The UNFCCC are taking the necessary steps to accommodate those challenges, including connectivity, working across time zones, and group coordination," Sharma wrote.

COP26 was originally scheduled for November 2020 but was pushed back due to the pandemic.

There are fears that some countries will be unable to attend the talks in person due to sluggish or non-existent vaccination campaigns.

Sharma again indicated his strong preference for COP26 to take place "in person" but stressed that delegates needed to arrive in Glasgow "having done our homework".

The laundry list facing participants in Glasgow is daunting.

Delegates are faced with ever-direr warnings from scientists about the scale of emissions cuts needed to keep within reach the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C -- as laid out in the Paris agreement.

That deal, struck more than five years ago, committed nations to resubmit their emissions cutting plans -- known as NDCs -- every five years with enhanced green ambition.

Yet many of the largest emitters have so far failed to do so and countries have not even agreed on a unified rulebook governing how the Paris agreement works in practice.

Sharma said COP26 must see "substantive decisions" on the thorny issue of emissions trading and accounting, as well as significantly ramping up finance to climate vulnerable nations to help them adapt to the warming world.

The UN says that emissions must fall nearly eight percent annually to keep 1.5C in play -- equivalent to the emissions saved during the pandemic every single year through 2030.

Sharma hinted that an additional negotiating session may be needed to get countries closer together before Glasgow, "in person, should it be feasible".

"Such an approach to formal sessions and capturing progress is, in my view, the only way we will make sufficient progress ahead of meeting in person in Glasgow to ensure COP26 delivers on its mandates and what the world expects of us," he said.

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Brazil's Bolsonaro under pressure ahead of climate summit
Rio De Janeiro (AFP) April 8, 2021
A coalition of environmental groups and agribusiness companies urged President Jair Bolsonaro's government Thursday to set "more ambitious" goals to curb Brazil's emissions and protect the Amazon rainforest at this month's US-organized climate summit. "Brazil is a key country in the global effort to achieve climate balance," said the Brazil Climate, Forests and Agriculture Coalition, a group of more than 280 organizations and firms. "Its climate goals need to be more ambitious.... The country ur ... read more