Both funds listed by Yellen are geared towards tackling climate change in developing countries. China has been reluctant to contribute to these funds in the past, claiming it is also a developing nation.
Yellen also discussed the importance of broad transitions to net zero carbon emissions, including in the private sector. She suggested that the United States and China scale up and improve their investments in reducing climate change « in ways that are interoperable with our different systems. »
Yellen’s trip to China comes as the United States tries to ease tensions between the two countries and follows a visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken last month.
Following her remarks, Yellen met with Vice Premier He Lifeng, her counterpart in the Chinese government. Climate finance remained Yellen’s focus at this meeting, according to a statement from the Treasury Department.
During her meeting with He, Yellen also called on China to contribute to the « debt distress in low-income and emerging economies » by restructuring the debt owed to it by developing nations as states routinely do. United States and the EU. China has also resisted this course of action in the past.
In Delaware on Saturday afternoon, President Joe Biden told reporters he had not yet spoken to Yellen about his trip to China. Yellen is expected to speak at a press conference in Beijing at 9 p.m. ET on Saturday.
