The Energy Policy Cooperation Between China and the European Union

Abstract

This article deals with crucial political aspects of the cooperation between
the EU and China in the field of energy, focusing not only on the
institutionalized forms of cooperation, but also on the larger context of the
Sino-European energy cooperation, including the issues of climate change,
China’s internal political dynamics and the PRC’s investments in the EU. For
China, the EU member states are not sources of energy resources
themselves, but they possess important and valuable technologies and
know-how; they also present business opportunities for Chinese energy
enterprises. There is no automatic convergence of interests between these
the two political entities; however, energy presents a potentially fruitful area
of cooperation for both the EU and China, including in terms of fighting
climate change and building a low-carbon economy, and this is even more
so the case with the Trump administration in charge in the U.S.