US Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed at a meeting in Moscow to develop cooperation in the fight against climate change.
Kerry, who met with Lavrov many times when he was US secretary of state, said "the stakes couldn't be higher" as the world faces heat and other extreme weather events.
"You and I have spent years negotiating wars, chemical weapons, nuclear weapons, and I can say without reservation that this is an absolutely equally critical and urgent initiative," Kerry said at a joint news conference.
Lavrov indicated that Moscow "pays great attention to the problems related to climate change", welcoming the "very timely" visit of his American guest to Moscow.
According to him, Russia expects "close cooperation" with the United States at the COP26 summit in November in Glasgow, Great Britain.
Lavrov added that Kerry's visit was "very important and positive" to "ease tensions" between their two countries, which have been intensifying for years amid accusations of election meddling, espionage and cyber attacks, largely attributed to Moscow.
Russia, one of the world's largest oil and gas producers, has promised in recent years to take climate change seriously. Forest fires in Siberia are getting bigger and the melting of the permafrost is threatening several cities in the North Pole area.
During an annual speech in April, President Vladimir Putin said Russia must adapt to climate change and ordered the creation of an industry to recycle carbon released into the atmosphere.
Climate change is one of the few areas in which the United States and the European Union, amid ongoing tensions with Moscow, have expressed a willingness to cooperate with Russia.
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