Summit in Beijing
China and the EU undertake to “strengthen their efforts” for the climate
Beijing and Brussels announced in a joint statement their desire to cooperate on Thursday to combat climate change.
The president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen at the summit in Beijing, on July 24, 2025.
AFP
The Chine et the European Union Thursday undertook to “strengthen their efforts to fight against the climate changeIn a joint press release published on the sidelines of a summit between European and Chinese leaders in Beijing.
Global warming is historically an area of convergence between Brussels and Beijing, the two parties expressing their desire to cooperate to combat climate change.
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The EU aims at carbon neutrality by 2050, while China, the world’s leading world -class gas transmitter, has committed to achieving this objective before 2060. But the relationship between the two powers has been stretched by several files, from the war in Ukraine to commercial issues.
Strengthen bilateral cooperation
Despite these tension points, Beijing and Brussels were committed to “strengthening their efforts (…) to accelerate rapid action on a large scale and at all levels” in the fight against climate change, the joint statement said.
The two parties also wish to strengthen their bilateral cooperation in fields such as “energy transition, adaptation, management and control of methane emissions, carbon markets as well as green and low carbon technologies”, specifies the document.
Brussels and Beijing also want to accelerate the global deployment of renewable energies and facilitate access to green technologies – China is a major producer, from electric vehicles to solar panels.
Surpass tensions between China and the EU
This joint declaration “sends an important signal: climate cooperation can still surpass geopolitical tensions”, comments in a note David Waskow, of the WRI reflection group.
A more marked initiative on the part of the two biggest transmitters is crucial to rekindle the world momentum after the removal of the United States from the Paris Agreement, he adds. But both parties must now “go into practice”, estimates Yao Zhe, expert at Greenpeace.
A senior European official had declared to the media “Financial Times” earlier in the month that Brussels would not sign a joint climate declaration with Beijing without more ambitious objectives to reduce emissions.
An editorial of the state newspaper “China Daily” had in return accused the EU of using the “climate card” to force China to change its position on the war in Ukraine – Beijing, which presents itself as neutral in the conflict, is a key economic and geopolitical ally of Moscow.
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