In Counter to Trump, China Opens Up to EU During Climate Talks

Negotiators at COP29 are struggling to forge a consensus to boost funding to help poor countries. The fading US role has created a bigger opening for China.

Author of the article:

Bloomberg News

Alfred Cang

Published Nov 18, 2024  •  3 minute read

Liu Zhenmin, China's special envoy for climate change, during a methane summit at the COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. The United Nations climate change conference, COP29, runs through Nov. 22. Photo by Andrey Rudakov /Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — China has an opportunity at the COP29 climate summit to score points with the European Union, potentially easing trade tensions over its green exports to the bloc by helping to secure agreement on the key unresolved issue at the two-week negotiations. 

President-elect Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House has weakened US credibility at the United Nations conference and increased pressure on the EU to step up and help secure a deal to raise more financial aid for developing countries. China wants to play a role in making that happen without dragging out the meeting, according to people familiar with the country’s negotiating strategy.

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A major stumbling block has been China’s status as both a developing nation, in diplomatic categories set by UN climate negotiations, as well as the world’s second-largest economy and dominant producer of green technologies. The Chinese team has drawn a red line at being classified as an official donor country under the Paris Agreement, the people said, but it is willing to contribute more voluntarily.

Chinese officials have repeatedly emphasized that their country has provided 177 billion yuan ($24 billion) in project funds to help other developing nations deal with climate change since 2016, on par with some developed economies. 

“If China and the EU can collaborate effectively on the COP29 agenda… it will establish a strong foundation for re-aligning their broader green and economic initiatives and improve the bilateral relationship,” said Li Shuo, director of the Asia Society Policy Institute who closely follows China’s international climate policy. He said both sides need a strong starting point to manage trade disputes, similar to discussions between China and the US that helped set the stage for easing the trade war during Trump’s first term.

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China has become an increasingly central figure at the annual COP climate summits. As the world’s top greenhouse gas emitter, it can do more than any other country to slow the rise in global temperatures. But the Asian nation is also struggling with its own economic woes and isn’t in a position to pledge significant increases in financing. Moreover, it argues that it is still a developing country, and nations that industrialized first should bear the biggest burden in compensating other countries for the consequences of carbon pollution. 

“As the developed country with the largest economy and the largest cumulative greenhouse gas emissions in the world, the United States should face up to its responsibilities,” a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said on Monday in response to a question about China’s future climate finance contributions. “The Paris Agreement is clear on who will pay for it.”

This year’s climate summit is off to a bumpy start. Negotiators have made little progress on their main objective: coming up with a new post-2025 goal for rich nations to raise money to help poorer countries cut emissions and adapt to more extreme weather. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is leading a push against efforts to reiterate and implement last year’s agreement to transition away from fossil fuels.

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Azerbaijan, the host country, has struggled to get countries on the same page on both fronts, while its president has caused controversy by insulting other nations and defending dirty energy. China wants to help the COP29 presidency turn this year’s meeting into a success, the people familiar said. 

One way that could happen would be for the EU and China to reach a compromise on financial contributions. Since the US is expected to be only a minimal contributor of public climate finance for the next four years, at least, it’s lost some of its leverage to demand a tougher deal bringing China more clearly into the finance fold.

That’s created an opening for the EU to advocate for language in the final deal that embraces more voluntary contributions instead, along with a more transparent accounting of what’s been given per country after the fact. The bloc’s climate chief, Wopke Hoekstra, signaled on Monday that it would be open to China making a voluntary commitment to provide climate finance to the Global South.

“It would be welcome for those countries to make such a step,” he said at a press conference Monday, referring to China but also other nations including Singapore, South Korea and oil-rich Gulf states. “This is about solving one of the largest problems humanity faces at this point in time.”

—With assistance from John Ainger and Jennifer A Dlouhy.

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