Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has been overseas in China as of late, trying to get the nation with whom we rarely agree to engage with the United States on the topic of climate change. And, lo and behold, it looks like it may be working. The Premier of China, Wen Jiabao, says that China is ready to join the dialogue on climate change. From Terra Daily:

“China will cement policy dialogue with the United States, take the joint tackling of climate change as an important aspect of cooperation and push for positive results in the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference,” Xinhua news agency quoted Wen as saying.

This is pretty exciting stuff, as China has resisted multi-lateral attempts to discuss climate change and was not bound by the Kyoto protocol, which the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference will attempt to replace. Pelosi, for her part, said (prior to Premier Wen’s statement) that China joining a discussion on climate change could have great implications for U.S./China relations.

“I think that this climate change crisis is a game changer in US-China relations, it is an opportunity that we cannot miss,” she said at a clean energy forum in Beijing.

John Kerry, also in China for whatever reason, echoed the same sentiment at the same forum as Pelosi.

“I personally believe that the success of Copenhagen can be defined by what China and the United States agree on over the course of the next few weeks,” he told reporters.

Maybe these statements caused China to want to participate, maybe not. But the upshot is, a dialogue is in the works, and that can only mean good things in lowering emissions of greenhouse gases.

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