At a critical juncture in global climate governance, where pressures on multilateral cooperation are mounting, collaboration between China and the European Union (EU), rooted in their shared pursuit of pragmatism and tangible outcomes, has demonstrated unique resilience and value.
The core feature of this cooperative model lies in its focus on delivering on promises through actions rather than just making them.
This turn to pragmatism has been reflected in recent political consensus. In the China-EU leaders’ joint statement on climate change issued in July, the two sides agreed to accelerate the global deployment of renewable energy so that all countries, including developing nations, can access, afford, and effectively use it.
This is not merely a vision but represents a methodology. The shift of focus to concrete actions is of critical importance to bridging the vast gap between current global climate pledges and actual emission reduction results.
A bird’s eye view of the Qianjin Wind Farm in Silian Town, Xincheng County, Laibin City of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on July 10, 2025.
Cooperation from Top-Level Design to Micro-Level Practices
A distinctive feature of China-EU climate cooperation is in their joint commitment to constructing a comprehensive pathway that connects macro-level policies with micro-level practices, which is expected to effectively translate political willingness into collaborative projects.
At the policy level, the two sides are progressively moving from “target coordination” to “mechanism alignment.” Their in-depth coordination on climate policies serves as the cornerstone of cooperation.
A key step in this process is submitting their respective 2035 Nationally Determined Contributions – covering all economic sectors and all greenhouse gases – ahead of the 30th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2025. Here, the wording of “all economic sectors” signifies that climate action has been systematically extended to areas such as agriculture, transportation, construction, and consumption, requiring more refined and coordinated policy design and implementation.
Within this framework, China and the EU have already made progress in policy coordination in certain areas. For instance, the jointly released China-EU Common Ground Taxonomy provides reference standards for defining climate-friendly economic activities, helping to guide cross-border green capital flows. Additionally, the established policy dialogue mechanism on carbon emissions trading has enabled both sides to use market tools to accelerate their energy transition. The establishment and refinement of these mechanisms exemplify the concrete alignment of policies between the two sides.
At the technological and industrial level, the focus is on leveraging complementary strengths and fostering industrial synergy. China and Europe complement each other in the field of green and low-carbon technologies, which forms a crucial foundation for their cooperation. Europe possesses long-term accumulated expertise in the R&D of certain frontier technologies, standard-setting, and market application. While China, leveraging its complete industrial chain and vast domestic market, is advantageous in technology transfer, scale production, and cost control.
Take photovoltaic and wind power as examples. China accounts for approximately 80 percent and 60 percent of global capacity for solar and wind power generation equipment manufacturing, respectively, while Europe boasts a mature green consumer market, well-established carbon pricing mechanisms, and robust renewable energy installation demand with an average annual growth rate exceeding 10 percent. Combining Europe’s technology and market with China’s manufacturing capacity and supply chain will efficiently translate innovative achievements into globally accessible clean energy solutions, creating a win-win outcome. Through deepened cooperation, China and Europe will facilitate the free flow and widespread application of high-quality green technologies and products globally, jointly accelerating the global energy transition process.
The hydrogen-powered cultural tourism train “Hydrogen Spring” is parked on a street in Changchun, in northeast China’s Jilin Province, on June 4, 2025.
More Globally Inclusive Benefits
The success of climate actions depends not only on the quantity of emissions reduction but also on whether such reduction can deliver inclusive development dividends. Particularly, it hinges on whether climate actions can make practical contributions to promoting sustainable development, eliminating energy poverty, and achieving a just transition.
The China-EU joint statement emphasizes working together to play a leadership role in promoting a just global transition while advancing sustainable development and eliminating poverty, reflecting a profound understanding of the developmental attributes of climate actions. A “just transition” here entails both enabling developing economies to access affordable clean energy and supporting industries and communities affected by the transition, thereby ensuring that the benefits of green development are shared more broadly.
China’s green development practices provide an example in case. Over the past decade, through technological innovation, scaled production, and market competition, the levelized cost of energy of Chinese-made photovoltaic modules and onshore wind power has decreased by over 80 percent and 50 percent, respectively. This has not only supported the rapid growth of the installed capacity of China’s own renewable energy, but has also profoundly reshaped the global cost structure of clean energy. Data from the United Nations Environment Programme show that the global costs of newly built solar and onshore wind power plants are now much lower than those of new fossil fuel power plants.
The substantial reduction in costs holds global significance. It offers a viable alternative for many developing countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America – regions long grappling with energy shortages – to leapfrog traditional high-carbon development paths and gain direct access to clean electricity. Low-cost renewable energy technology is becoming a crucial tool for these regions to promote energy access and sustainable economic development.
The China-based renewable energy solutions company Envision and Italy-headquartered renewable energy developer FERA Australia sign an agreement on July 17, 2025, to collaborate on carrying out a 1,500 MWh integrated hybrid wind and energy storage project.
Injecting Stability in an Unstable World
The release of this joint statement comes at a critical juncture for global climate governance. The goal of limiting global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius set by the Paris Agreement faces severe challenges, and a significant “emissions gap” persists between national pledges and the concrete actions required to meet the target. Furthermore, geopolitical conflicts and wavering climate policies in some nations have cast a cloud over the prospects for international climate cooperation.
Against this backdrop, the choice of China and the EU to reaffirm and deepen their climate collaboration injects much-needed stability into the global multilateral climate action. Looking ahead, bilateral cooperation is set to expand from solar and wind power into critical areas essential for further decarbonization, such as energy storage, hydrogen power, smart grids, and carbon capture, utilization, and storage. This expansion is guided by a core logic: through sustained collaborative innovation and open market cooperation, participating parties can continuously reduce costs, enhance the performance of green technologies, and move closer to the ultimate goal of building a global green technology ecosystem that is shared by and beneficial to all.
Climate change is a global challenge that no single country can tackle alone. China-EU cooperation demonstrates that the only effective path forward is to adhere to a pragmatic principle that emphasizes action and prioritizes tangible outcomes, and to firmly promote open cooperation. A more sustainable, prosperous, and equitable future will be possible only when clean and inclusive low-carbon technologies become available, affordable, and beneficial to the entire world. 
ZHAI YONGPING is senior adviser at the Strategic Development Department of Tencent and former chief energy expert at Asian Development Bank.
