Yellen Urges China to Cooperate More on Climate Finance

July 08, 2023
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The Biden administration called on China on Saturday to do more to help developing countries combat climate change, urging the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases to back international climate finance funds that it has so far declined to support.

Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen delivered the message during her second day of meetings in Beijing, where she is seeking to cultivate areas of cooperation between the United States and China. While China has expressed support for programs to help poor countries cope with the effects of climate change, it has resisted paying into such funds, arguing that it is also a developing nation.

Ms. Yellen said that China, like the United States, has a responsibility to be a climate finance leader.

“Climate finance should be targeted efficiently and effectively,” Ms. Yellen said during a meeting with a group of Chinese and international sustainable finance experts on Saturday morning. “I believe that if China were to support existing multilateral climate institutions like the Green Climate Fund and the Climate Investment Funds alongside us and other donor governments, we could have a greater impact than we do today.”

Source: The New York Times