Sino-European cooperation in the energy sector isn’t just important for renewables, but a sign of wider geopolitical shifts.
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A highly anticipated summit between China and the European Union took place in late July in Beijing, and the resulting tension was even more intense than political analysts anticipated. Chinese President Xi Jinping, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and European Council President Antonio Costa all struggled to find common ground. Chinese leaders were unable to secure new trade conduits to bypass U.S. tariffs while splitting the Western alliance, in part because European leaders insisted on the condition that China stop supporting Russia first. To make matters worse, CNN reported that European leaders were unwilling to accommodate China on critical minerals initiatives and trade imbalance remediation. Despite this strategic stalemate, there was one area of notable cooperation: green energy.
The two sides issued a joint statement agreeing to accelerate the development and deployment of green energy technologies and reaffirmed their support for the Paris Climate Agreement, which the Trump administration has withdrawn from. For both Brussels and Beijing, the cooperation represents a shared opportunity to make an imprint on the international system while the current U.S. policies abdicate the North American nation’s previous role as a global innovation leader.
Europe gains leverage over the U.S. by signaling it has strategic autonomy and maintains a source of cheap imports, which are vital for Europe’s state-directed green energy transition. China maintains a lifeline to many advanced economies and export markets for its affordable, mass-produced green tech, such as solar panels and electric vehicles.
While both sides made modest gains during the July summit, and this by no means represents Brussels capitulating to Beijing, China has clearly gotten the better deal. Through this deal and others like it, as the U.S. lurches towards “climate isolationism,” distrustful of prevailing science, China is poised to increase its influence in key areas, including green energy, through its multilateral economic and renewable energy engagement.
Is China Becoming A Renewables Superpower?
China may soon become a renewables superpower, as the Asian nation is already the global leader in renewable energy production, accounting for 40% of the world’s renewable energy capacity and investing $818 billion in green energy in 2024, according to data from the World Economic Forum. Between January and May 2025, China installed enough wind and solar power to generate as much electricity as Indonesia or Turkey. In only the first few months of 2025, the think tank Ember Energy estimated that China has produced as much solar capacity as in all of 2020, demonstrating the speed of Beijing’s green energy development. Its record-breaking solar and wind installations are only the tip of the iceberg.
China is also committed to increasing the population’s reliance on nuclear energy. Beijing has set out to become the largest nuclear energy-producing country by 2030, a goal it is on track to meet. Currently, China has 58 operable nuclear reactors, fewer than the U.S.’s 94 reactors. However, it took the U.S. forty years to create that nuclear capacity. In the last 30 years, the U.S. has successfully commissioned only a single nuclear power plant, which was years behind schedule and billions over budget. Meanwhile, China’s nuclear reactors are newer and more efficient than most American ones, which were mostly constructed in the 1960s and 1970s.
As part of this initiative, Beijing is pioneering the development of small modular reactors, which are a fraction of the size of traditional reactors and can be assembled in a factory before being shipped elsewhere to begin generation. China’s ‘Linglong One’ was the world’s first operable commercial SMR, with the second being in Russia. The U.S.’s first commercial SMR is not expected to come online until 2027.
Images of modern Chinese cities interspersed with green energy projects are a vital component of China’s soft power. They often feature in Beijing’s messaging to the global south.
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What The U.S. Loses By Disengaging From Climate Treaties
The benefits of these Chinese investments and accomplishments go beyond the self-evident rationale that cheaper energy means a stronger economy. Energy policy and high-tech energy component exports provide China with an opportunity to move up the value-added chain for exports and reshape the evolving international energy ecosystem.
China is exploiting an opening by the U.S. disengaging, abandoning European allies in their joint renewable energy initiatives. Approximately $8 billion worth of climate tech projects in the U.S. have been downsized or cancelled in 2025, the MIT Technology Review reported, all while China and Europe continue to expand cooperation in the field.
While China has made considerable strides in green energy, it is essential to remember that China is not a green utopia. China is the world’s largest producer of green energy, but it also emits more greenhouse gas than any other country in the world. China playing ball with the Europeans certainly reflects its commitment to and heavy investment in clean energy and a green transition. It also reflects Beijing’s inability to unilaterally act and reshape international energy demands – meaning the U.S. both has the time and potential to prevent Chinese dominance in the energy sector.
Renewable energy is also a key aspect of China’s soft power abroad. China has invested in renewable energy developments in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, gaining control of key supply chains in developing countries as their demand for electricity grows. Additionally, China aims to sell 30 nuclear reactors to countries through its Belt and Road Initiative by 2030, once again expanding its global footprint through energy development. Its footprint was even growing in the EU before the summit, as Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers captured significant market shares in several European economies.
China’s ever-growing influence in the climate sector is poised to leave the U.S. in the dust so long as Washington’s energy policy draws more on nostalgia than foresight. Regardless of the priorities of the Trump administration, with regards to the energy sector, advancement in green technology is still critical to remain competitive with China. Beijing’s supply of renewable technology has boosted its position in the global economy and on the diplomatic stage. Though the current American strategy emphasizes the utilization of its oil and gas resources, an ‘all of the above’ strategy would benefit from also including investment in solar, wind, and nuclear energy technologies to ensure the U.S. can still compete with the Chinese juggernaut in the future global economy, which will be defined by energy resources on both global and local scales.
