EU and China Pledge Climate Leadership Role as US Retreats
(Bloomberg) -- The European Union and China committed to leading the world in the fight against climate change in a symbolic show of unity as the US steps back under President Donald Trump.
Brussels and Beijing will deliver updated climate plans for 2035 that are in line with the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement, ahead of the United Nations’s COP30 summit in Brazil later this year, according to a joint statement on Thursday. They’ll also boost cooperation in areas such as the energy transition and tackling methane emissions.
“The two sides agree to demonstrate leadership together to drive a global just transition in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication,” said the statement. Bloomberg previously reported its content.
While lacking in specific commitments on how emissions will be reduced and by how much, the statement is still a crucial show of unity in the face of disagreement on a number of other issues, such as trade and relations with Russia. The declaration is the only deliverable expected from a summit marking 50 years of EU-China diplomatic ties.
“Joining forces here will send a powerful message to the world,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in opening remarks ahead of the EU-China summit in Beijing on Thursday.
The pledge could also help drive climate ambition during the COP30 summit — a role that has usually been played between the US and China in recent years.
The Sunnylands Agreement, for example, helped pave the way to a landmark commitment to transition away from fossil fuels at COP28 in Dubai. But with Trump exiting the Paris Agreement, climate activists have called on the EU and China to fill the void and show that global progress on tackling climate change will not be derailed.
Cooperation on climate change as often provided a key diplomatic avenue with Beijing. The question is now whether it can survive an increasingly hostile geopolitical environment, while convincing other nations to also boost their own ambition at a time when Trump is threatening much of the world with tariffs.
“Amid deep divergences across much of the broader bilateral agenda, a joint climate statement from Brussels and Beijing offers a modest but meaningful source of relief,” said Li Shuo, director of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute in Washington. “Preserving space for future EU–China climate engagement will require careful and sustained effort.”
(Updates to show statement has been unveiled.)
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