Boston Mayor Marty Walsh will visit China this week as a featured speaker at a climate summit of more than 60 American and Chinese leaders.

The Democrat will join a delegation that includes officials from 20 U.S. municipalities taking part in a low-carbon cities summit in Beijing. He will talk about the challenge that climate change poses to urban areas. Walsh said he hopes to get ideas from his Chinese counterparts.

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The goal of the summit is to put cities at the forefront of the battle against climate change by working together to reduce greenhouse gases. It aims that civic leaders can share strategies to limit carbon emissions, whether that be through a new fleet of electric buses in China or energy-efficient buildings in Boston.

“There’s always an opportunity for learning. There’s some mayors here in China that are doing some interesting things that we could look [at] and see if we could implement some of that in Boston,” he said upon arriving here in Beijing.

The climate summit is considered as an opportunity for officials to exchange best practices between U.S. and Chinese cities. The summit is organized by the United States and China in part to promote the U.S.-China Joint Announcement on Climate Change made by the countries' leaders in 2014.

As the world’s most populous nation, China must play a significant role in any serious effort to curb climate change. China accounts for roughly 20 percent of global emissions, giving its cities the potential to make a significant impact.

Walsh is the first Boston mayor to visit China since Kevin White in 1982. The summit will put Walsh on a global stage with urban leaders from Phoenix to Sichuan, Santa Fe to Guangyuan, and Dubuque to Beijing. The mayor’s trip is funded by the private foundation Bloomberg Philanthropies.

TagsBoston Mayor Walsh, Walsh, climate summit, U.S.-China Joint Announcement on Climate Change, US, china, Climate Change, Boston