John Kerry in Brussels to renew US-EU climate cooperation

BRUSSELS - John Kerry, the United States' Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, on Tuesday underlined the cooperation between the US and European Union (EU) on the fight against the climate crisis during his visit to Brussels.

Kerry stressed that the world is facing not only a climate crisis but also "a moment of the greatest opportunity that we've had since perhaps the industrial revolution to build better to renew ourselves and our economies."

He described the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland in November this year as the last opportunity for the world to come together and "build on Paris (Agreement)."

Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of the European Green Deal and Commissioner for Climate Action Policy, hailed the comeback of the US climate action.

He said the EU and the US would be working to make a success of Glasgow, though it will be quite an effort to "convince other major players in the world to do the right thing."

Kerry attended the weekly European Commission College meeting, where the commission's president Ursula von der Leyen recalled that Joe Biden, on his first day in office, announced the US return to the Paris Agreement.

The EU member states agreed in December to cut the bloc's greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030 from 1990 levels.

So far, half of the G20 members, such as Japan, China, South Korea or South Africa, are already committed to achieving climate- or at least carbon neutrality by 2050 or soon after.