Chinas former climate envoy to meet with EU to revive flailing UN pact, sources say

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FILE PHOTO: Chinese Climate Envoy Xie Zhenhua attends a press conference, after a draft of a negotiation deal was released, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 13, 2023. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky/File Photo

WASHINGTON/BEIJING - Chinas former veteran climate envoy, who previously secured two pivotal climate agreements with the United States, will meet with the EUs top green transition official on Tuesday to resuscitate flailing international climate negotiations ahead of the COP30 summit in Brazil, three sources told Reuters.

Xie Zhenhua, who retired at the end of COP28 climate talks in Dubai in late 2023, will visit Brussels on September 16 to meet with Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president of the European Commission for a Clean, Just, and Competitive Transition.

He will urge the EU to announce more ambitious climate goals and coordinate joint diplomatic efforts ahead of a preliminary climate meeting at U.N. headquarters on September 24.

The meeting is meant to give a boost to the COP30 climate summit that will begin in November in Belem, Brazil, two sources familiar with the meeting told Reuters. The summit is facing potentially low attendance due to the shortage and cost of hotel rooms as well as the withdrawal of the worlds largest emitter, the United States, from the negotiating process.

Three sources said Xie will meet with Ribera, who he has known for a long time, but they could not