EU-China Climate & Environment policies: partners, competitors, rivals
Both China and the EU are set on a carbon footprint reduction path. How are the two blocs working together of against each other in the field of environment and climate change?
At the occasion of a webinar organised by the Union of European Federalists, the Europa-Union Deutschland, and the Young European Federalists Germany, I moderated a workshop on the EU and China climate policies. The article you are reading is the result of my reflections after researching the subject and the discussion with the participants of the roundtable. Special thanks go to the organisers of the event and its participants.
If the world is to answer the Paris Agreement and its objective of limiting global warming by 1,5°C worldwide, the international community must act and move now with an ambitious climate agenda. Europe, despite not achieving enough, is already in the lead. The continent aims to be the first bloc to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
Even if we consider that Europe achieves this objective, this alone will not be enough to keep global warming within acceptable limits. The rest of the world needs to follow. China has the highest climate footprint in the world, with around 30% of the world's CO2 emissions. Knowing that half of the coal plants in construction in the world are located in China, we see that this figure is set to increase - not only relatively to the rest of the world but in absolute numbers too.
Yet, China too is committed to a carbon neutrality path to be reached in 2060, ten years only after the EU. Is this feat credible, and even attainable? What can Europe do to encourage China to pursue this virtuous path?
Diplomatic parters
China and Europe are moving - or at least so they claim - in the same direction when it comes to climate change. The commitment to carbon neutrality is one. Another is the push for a worldwide Emission Trading Scheme.
This system, already in place in Europe, has been extremely efficient to reduce the EU’s carbon footprint. By putting a price on CO2 emission, power-generating companies have been forced to move towards cleaner means of production, leaving progressively CO2-intensive sources (coal, oil, gas) to cleaner alternatives (renewables, nuclear, etc.).
China sees this system positively and implemented its own with the EU’s help and would like to implement it now worldwide1. Initiatives like this are what the world needs to reduce our impact on the environment.
Trade competitors
Yet, despite a few collaborations, the EU and China remain divided when it comes to trade rules. The EU is moving forward with the introduction of its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), a trade restriction aimed at increasing the price of carbon-intensive goods from foreign origins.
The goal of the CBAM is to decrease the relative competitiveness of imported goods with a high footprint on the environment, both with the objective to incite trade partners like China to move towards cleaner production methods, and for European customers to choose locally-produce, virtuous products.
This initiative will carry a direct blow to Chinese exports to the EU. This is one of the reasons for China’s push to adopt a worldwide ETS: the communist state would like to avoid the restrictions of the CBAM to hurt its economy too directly.
Strategic rivals
The workshop also discussed the follow-up of the Ukraine crisis. Facing sanctions and a relative ban from the West, Russia is trying to find new partners for its fossil fuel exports, even by cutting on prices.
China enjoys these low energy prices (especially on oil) to power its energy sector. In the end, this is no good news for the climate. But while Europe and the West want to put Russia in difficulties to limit its war effort, China’s oil purchase reduces this tentative to nothing, as it provides Putin’s system the means to continue its aggression.
With this piece, I hope I could give you a quick overview of the main issues around EU and China relations regarding Climate and Energy issues. I hope this was informative and insightful.
As always, if you found it interesting, a like is always welcome. I’m waiting for our discussion in the comments: do you think China’s pledge to be climate neutral by 2060 is credible? See you in the comment section!
https://merics.org/en/short-analysis/eu-china-climate-policy-balancing-cooperation-and-pressure