China-eu Cooperation On Clean Energy Research

In recent years, driven by the urgent needs to save energy and cut greenhouse gasemissions, China and EU have been actively promoting cooperation in the areas ofclean energy. To strengthen cooperation, China and EU have established a number ofbilateral and multilateral mechanisms. And under these mechanisms, the two sides cancoordinate bilateral policies, exchange personnel and transfer technologies in theareas of clean energy, which help promote the launch of many large-scale cleanenergy cooperation programs, such as EEP, EC2and CDM Promotion Program. Chinaand EU, however, have also faced many challenges to further clean energycooperation mainly due to mutual distrust and conflicts of some core interests. EUhigh-tech export controls, China-EU trade frictions in the areas of clean energy andthe lack of cooperation between the two sides’ enterprises are currently three majorproblems which prevent China and EU from expanding clean energy cooperation.Therefore, to break these barriers, China and the EU should take advantage ofmultilateral mechanisms to solve trade disputes and amplify bilateral cooperationmechanisms and rules to improve mutual trust. When facing challenges caused byconflicts of interests, China and the EU should seek common ground and solutions byexpanding cooperation while reserving differences.