AFP — UK energy minister Ed Miliband met officials in Beijing on Monday after vowing to press them on China’s emissions as well as touchy topics such as Hong Kong and forced labour.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has sought to boost engagement with China since coming to power in July, despite concerns over security and human rights crackdowns.
Although it is the largest emitter of the greenhouse gases that drive climate change, China, the world’s second-largest economy, is also a renewable energy powerhouse and aims to reach net zero by 2060.
The UK has pledged to decarbonise completely by 2050 and has ramped up the transition to clean energy sources, which it claims will help boost its flagging economy.
On Monday, Miliband met with Wang Hongzhi, head of Beijing’s National Energy Administration, for the China-UK Energy Dialogue that London has said will be the first of regular “climate change talks between both countries moving forward”.
He also held talks with Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang at Beijing’s ornate Great Hall of the People.
Miliband is the third minister in Starmer’s cabinet to visit China, writing in The Guardian newspaper last week that he will use the trip to “urge continued action from China… to tackle the climate emergency”.
“I consider it to be negligence towards today’s and future generations not to engage China on this topic,” he wrote.
Official data showed last month that China missed a key climate target in 2024 and that emissions rose slightly as coal remained dominant, despite record renewable additions.
The figures mean that China is off-track on a key commitment under the Paris climate agreement, analysts said.
London has said the UK will share with China “expertise on phasing out coal, having closed its last coal-fired power station last year.”
Miliband said he would also raise concerns over rights abuses in Hong Kong and the treatment of the Uyghur minority — as well as “forced labour in supply chains” and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Beijing has never condemned.
“Disagreement cannot be an excuse for disengagement,” Miliband said.
The energy minister also plans to invite Chinese counterparts to London later this year to renew formal climate dialogue between the countries, as the UK looks to play a leading role in global cooperation on the climate.
“This is about protecting the British people now and for generations to come,” he wrote.
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