The United States is looking to enhance partnership with Japan in tackling climate change and developing clean technology when Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visits Washington next month, White House climate adviser John Podesta said Wednesday, while emphasizing offshore wind as a key arena to work together.
In his first overseas trip since being tapped to replace John Kerry as the top U.S. climate diplomat, Podesta also stressed the importance of continuing dialogue with China to combat global warming amid lingering tensions between the world's two largest economies on issues ranging from security and trade to technology advancement.
"We want to maintain our channel of communication," the official told reporters in Tokyo. He said he and his Chinese counterpart have agreed "to meet at some point in the future, face-to-face."
Podesta also said his trip to Japan is "opportune," given Kishida's planned visit to the United States in April, adding that he expects the Japanese leader and U.S. President Joe Biden to discuss climate issues to "hopefully build new partnerships" and "find ways to collaborate particularly in spurring technological development."
He also said the United States and Japan could also cooperate in the deployment of renewables, especially in the offshore wind arena, touching on the Biden administration's goal to install 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind capacity by 2035, which it says is enough clean energy to power over 5 million homes.
While Japan has been criticized by environmental groups for its reliance on coal and promoting technologies such as co-firing of ammonia in coal-fired power plants as a supposed climate mitigation solution, Podesta encouraged the Asian country to accelerate renewable energy introduction, calling it a "low-cost option."
He said one of the achievements of a key U.N. climate conference in Dubai late last year was "for the first time to clearly align the world on the transition away from fossil fuels" and noted that "in the long term, we've got to move beyond coal, at least unabated coal" without carbon capture and storage attached to it.
The tour to Asia by the senior adviser to the president on international climate policy took place as concerns linger over possible U.S. environmental rollbacks if Republican Donald Trump returns to the White House following the November presidential election.
Trump, who served as president before Biden and advocated his unilateralist "America First" policy, pulled the United States out of what he called unfair Paris accord aimed at capping global greenhouse gas emissions.
Since taking office in January 2021, Biden, a Democrat, has reversed course on climate policy, putting the United States back into the Paris Agreement, and has pursued policies to curb emissions and boost investments in clean energy.
