U.S. climate envoy John Kerry is making arrangements to visit Japan for the first time in his current position to hold talks with Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, a diplomatic source said Thursday.
CNN reported that Kerry will be in Japan on Tuesday and then stay in China from Wednesday to Sept. 3 to meet with top climate officials in the lead-up to a U.N. climate conference slated to start late October.
Kerry will be traveling to China for the second time as U.S. President Joe Biden's climate envoy and is expected to meet with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua as part of efforts to persuade officials there to accelerate their timeline to decarbonize their economies and move away from coal, according to CNN.
As the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, China has committed to bringing total CO2 emissions to a peak before 2030 and aims to become carbon neutral by 2060.
With many countries including the United States and Japan vowing to attain net zero carbon emissions by 2050, Kerry may call on Beijing to set a more ambitious climate target than its current one.