South Korea, China hold talks on climate change

Government officials of South Korea and China meet for a joint committee on climate change in Haikou in the southern island province of Hainan, China, in this photo provided by Seoul’s foreign ministry on Nov. 1, 2019. (Yonhap)

Seoul: Government officials of South Korea and China held talks in China this week to discuss joint efforts for cooperation in tackling climate change, the foreign ministry said Friday.

Yoo Yeon-chul, ambassador for climate change at the foreign ministry met with Li Gao, director-general for climate change at China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment in the port city of Haikou in the southern island province of Hainan from Wednesday to Thursday, the ministry said in a release.

Officials from the environment and finance ministries of the two sides also attended the talks. The two countries launched the joint committee on climate change in 2015 and have since held regular consultations.

During the two-day talks, they agreed to work together to facilitate implementation of the Paris Agreement, including completing the details of the framework provisions largely aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by U.N. member states from 2020.

They also agreed to continue bilateral efforts to advance the adaptation process through expanding consultations with other countries regarding disagreements over the guidelines.

The Paris agreement was signed by the member countries of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2016. Under the agreement, countries must set specific goals and targets to bring down emission levels.

The U.S. has recently begun the process of withdrawing from the agreement, after President Donald Trump announced his intention to do so in 2017.

Regarding the cancellation of the U.N. climate change conference, known as COP25, in Chile due to intensifying anti-government protests, the two sides shared the need for concerted efforts to swiftly find an alternative venue so as to continue the dialogue process on fulfilling the Paris Agreement, according to the ministry.

YONHAP