Beijing's climate chief to visit US

China's new climate chief plans to visit the US in May for formal talks with his American counterpart, seeking to bolster one of the few bright spots in relations between the two global leaders.

Special Envoy for Climate Change Liu Zhenmin will take a delegation from different Chinese ministries to Washington, DC, for a first formal face-to-face meeting with US counterpart John Podesta, he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

China will aim to extend cooperation on issues including energy, the circular economy and efforts to curb greenhouse gases beyond carbon dioxide, Liu said. "Common ground means that both the US and China want to continue to lead this global process to respond to climate change," he said. "We have to cooperate as far as possible."

The nations "also need to respect each other on all issues," according to Liu.

Liu and Podesta, both appointed to their roles in January, have spoken virtually and met in person briefly at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin last week, following in the footsteps of Xie Zhenhua and John Kerry, who had a strong relationship that kept climate talks alive even as broader relations between the countries disintegrated.

Experts in US-China climate relations expect Liu's visit could help accelerate slow-moving talks under a working group that sprung from the California talks. And it could help the two negotiators forge trust ahead of the COP29 UN summit in Azerbaijan this November.