The Latest | UN Climate Summit

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — Climate envoy John Kerry said the U.S. is “fully engaged” in talks with China at the U.N. climate summit underway in Egypt.

Kerry met with China’s top climate official Xie Zhenhua Tuesday, a hint of improving relations seen as vital for substantial progress against global warming. Beijing put talks on hold three months ago in retaliation for U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan.

Asked what the outcome of the summit may be, Kerry replied: “We'll have to see, it's a late start.”

Speaking at an event to mark the conference's themed day on biodiversity, Kerry confirmed he had also met with Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Tuesday.

Kerry said he “was really encouraged by the ways in which he talked about once and for all getting it right, pulling people together in order to preserve the Amazon.”

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A lawmaker with the German Green party has called for establishing a legal structure to force polluters to pay for the destruction caused by climate change in vulnerable nations.

Speaking at an event at the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, Michael Bloss pointed to the devastating flooding in Pakistan this summer, which put one third of the country’s population underwater and caused an estimated $40 billion in damage.

The floods "are directly caused by the climate crisis,” he said, adding that the the world's biggest emitters “are responsible for losses and damages.”

Bloss criticized European governments for weakening efforts to establish a loss and damage fund which he said has “great support” in the European parliament.

The issue of compensation was once considered a taboo, because rich countries were concerned that they might find themselves...