China and the EU have forged a green alliance to combat climate change and counteract any retreat from international action by Donald Trump.
In a stark realignment of forces, documents seen by the Financial Times show that Beijing and Brussels have agreed to measures to accelerate what they call the “irreversible” shift away from fossil fuels and the “historic achievement” of the Paris climate accord.
Their collaboration is to be revealed on Friday at a summit of EU leaders with China’s Premier Li Keqiang in the same week that Mr Trump has said he will end months of indecision over whether to pull the US out of the Paris agreement.
The move comes days after a tense G7 summit in Italy that ended with Mr Trump at loggerheads with other leaders on the Paris deal and trade.
The sour mood intensified after German chancellor Angela Merkel later hinted at a deeper transatlantic rift by saying Europe could no longer “fully count on others” and needed to “fight for our own future ourselves”.
The alliance struck by the EU and China is a concrete expression of international frustration with Mr Trump, who has already moved to undo measures his predecessor, Barack Obama, agreed as part of the Paris deal adopted by almost every country in the world in December 2015.
The joint statement agreed by Beijing and Brussels for Friday’s summit, seen by the FT, says the two sides are “determined to forge ahead” with measures to “lead the energy transition” towards a global low-carbon economy.
The EU, home to the world’s largest carbon market, has agreed to give China €10m to support its plan to roll out a national emissions trading system this year in a move officials say will hasten the possibility of linking the two schemes.
Separately, two countries have agreed to look at helping the world’s poorest countries to develop greener economies.
This move could prove important in maintaining developing country support for the Paris deal if Mr Trump withdraws the US from the accord.
Mr Trump tweeted on Wednesday: “I will be announcing my decision on the Paris Accord over the next few days. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Axios, the website, and other US media outlets have reported that Mr Trump has decided that the US should withdraw from the accord.
Mr Trump’s advisers are deeply split over whether he should follow through on his campaign pledge to quit the Paris accord. Steve Bannon, his chief strategist who leads the economic nationalist camp, has been the leading advocate for withdrawal along with a big group of Republican senators. But Gary Cohn, head of the White House national economic council, Rex Tillerson, secretary of state, and Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka, are trying to persuade the president not to withdraw.
Business figures are also urging Mr Trump to stay in the accord. Elon Musk, the Tesla cofounder, tweeted on Wednesday that he would “have no choice but to depart” the president’s business and technology advisory councils if the US pulled out of Paris. And Apple chief executive Tim Cook called the president earlier this week to try to persuade him not to abandon the agreement.
Apple is among the Silicon Valley signatories to a letter urging Mr Trump to “keep the United States in the Paris Agreement”. The letter, which is running as a full-page ad in several US newspapers in May and June, is also signed by Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Intel, as well as Unilever, Gap and Morgan Stanley.
The US under Mr Obama was a major contributor to international climate financing programmes. Many developing countries have submitted climate plans for the Paris agreement that are contingent on receiving international funding.
The EU and China have also agreed to co-operate on the deployment of electric cars, energy-efficiency labelling and scientific research into green innovation.
They will also work on ways to spur the growth of renewable energy, such as boosting interconnected power networks.
The EU-China collaboration began at UN climate talks in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh, but were jolted by the unexpected election victory of Mr Trump, who once called global warming a Chinese “hoax”.
The agreement was negotiated by China’s special representative on climate change, Xie Zhenhua, and the EU’s climate and energy commissioner, Miguel Arias Cañete.
In their joint statement, the EU and China said “the increasing impacts of climate change require a decisive response”.
“Tackling climate change and reforming our energy systems are significant drivers of job creation, investment opportunities and economic growth,” they added.
Wendel Trio, of Climate Action Network, said co-operation between Brussels and Beijing to support vulnerable countries would be “one of the interesting breakthroughs” and went “beyond the traditional divide” on climate change between developed and developing nations.
Additional reporting by Rochelle Toplensky in Brussels
