Climate fight will not stall because certain countries drop out, China says

By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS, June 22 (Reuters) - ‌Global cooperation to ​tackle ​climate change will not stall because of the absence of certain countries, China's environment minister told a meeting of governments on Monday, as ‌nations prepare for this year's U.N. climate negotiations without the United States.

"The ⁠multilateral process will not stop, or even slow down, because of the absence of individual countries," Chinese ‌environment minister Huang Runqiu told ‌the meeting, describing the world's low-carbon transition as "irreversible".

U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the world's biggest economy from the Paris Agreement, the world's main climate change treaty, ​in January. So far, no other country has followed the U.S.'s lead and quit.

Huang was speaking at a meeting to discuss cooperation on climate change, which China, ⁠the European Union and Canada were co-hosting - despite mounting tensions between Brussels and Beijing over trade and China's ​dominance of global supply chains, including clean technologies like solar panels.

Huang also argued that the Iran war's huge disruption to global oil ​and gas supplies has strengthened the case for ‌the green transition.

"The energy crisis triggered by the war in Iran has made all parties further recognise that green and low-carbon development, ⁠guided by the response to climate change, helps coordinate energy transition and energy security," Huang said.

"The more turbulent and crisis-ridden the world becomes, the more it tests countries' strategic resolve and ⁠policy determination in advancing climate action," he said.

Early signs indicate the war is speeding up some ​countries' shift away from fossil fuels, with countries including Pakistan reporting a jump in electric vehicle sales since the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began. However, the war has also prompted some nations ‌to increase the use of coal or oil-based power generation as they struggle to replace gas from the Middle East.

China is ‌the world's biggest CO2 emitter and burns more coal than any other nation. At the ⁠same time, the country is also ‌leading the world in ​developing renewable energy and sales of electric cars - far outpacing any other economy on both fronts.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett, Hugo Lhomedet; Editing by ‌Aidan Lewis)

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