Europe-China Relations: A Complex Partnership
October 28, 2025
Batoora Achakzai
In the last ten years, climate change has become not a scientific issue, but a pillar of international politics. The European Union (EU) is among the greatest powers that have not only been players in this transformation but have been at the forefront of this transformation. With its climate diplomacy and green-energy agenda, the EU has tried to redefine foreign policy on the moral, economic, and strategic levels. But, with the increasing number of crises around the world, whether it is the war in Ukraine or increased protectionism, the problem the Europeans face is to be able to stay credible as the green champion of the world, and still, to balance its energy security and political unity.
The EU did not become the climate leader overnight. The milestones of the 2015 Paris Agreement saw the European negotiators at the center stage in creating binding temperature-reducing targets and financial obligations in adaptation and mitigation. Europe has since integrated the action on climate into all its external strands of policy. According to the European Green Deal (2019), climate neutrality in 2050 will be legally binding and a diplomatic brand. This made the environmental aspiration of the EU a foreign-policy tool, green diplomacy, in which trade agreements, development assistance, and alliances are pegged on environmental sustainability.
The climate diplomacy of Europe works by using both carrots and sticks. On the one hand, the EU uses billions of its green investments in its Global Gateway Initiative, which promotes the infrastructure of renewable energy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. On the other hand, it exerts strategic pressure via the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) policy that imposes carbon tariffs on imported goods in countries with poor environmental standards. Opponents consider CBAM to be green protectionism, but it is an expression of Europe trying to export its climate standards to the rest of the world. The point is made, entry to the EU market is accompanied by environmental responsibility.
Climate policy is now the most powerful soft-power instrument of Europe due to this diplomatic activism. The EU representatives developed the most powerful coalition, advocating a gradual elimination of fossil fuels and more climate-finance commitments by the developed countries at the COP28 Summit, which took place in Dubai in 2023. In 2024, the bloc created the Team Europe Renewable Energy Initiative, which involves mobilizing funds of member states and the European Investment Bank to finance solar and wind projects in Africa and the Indo-Pacific. These projects would not only solve the global emission, but they would also enhance the geopolitics of Europe in places where the Belt and Road Initiative of China had become predominant.
However, the climate policy of Europe is becoming increasingly contradictory. The Ukrainian war has demonstrated the vulnerability of the energy security of Europe and its reliance on external sources of fossil fuels. In 2022, EU member states rushed to get an alternative supply of gas, including coal-intensive economies, yet they kept lecturing the rest on decarbonization. This perceived false standard threatens to discredit the Europeans in terms of morality. In addition to this, the division of member states that apply to nuclear energy, the green subsidy, and agricultural emissions weakens the overall position of the EU. Foreign partners observe disjointed messages, and this is perceived when Paris, Berlin, and Warsaw are sending a fragmented message. This undermines the credibility of Europe as a unified and concerted action towards climate.
The other issue is the increase in disillusionment in the global south. The developing nations claim that Europe is preaching climate justice providing poor funding on climate change adaptation and loss-and-damage indemnity. The pledged 100 billion a year climate-finance target has not been fulfilled. In countries grappling with floods, droughts, and rising water levels, climate diplomacy that places greater emphasis on regulations rather than resources is empty in action. To regain confidence, Europe needs to close the gap between talk and action, particularly in terms of grants and not loans.
However, Europe still has much bargaining power. The so-called Brussels Effect, which grants the EU the regulatory power, implies that EU standards tend to become international norms by default (Peña Fdez. 2022). Since reporting of emissions to green-bond schemes, nations and businessmen adjust to retain entry into the markets of Europe. Such dominant humming, coupled with tactical investment, can make Europe potentially dominate the world not by force but by example.
In the future, the climate diplomacy in the EU should transform and not be normative leadership but a practical partnership. Three priorities stand out.
- One should first strike a balance between ambition and realism, keep high decarbonization goals, and avoid jeopardizing energy stability to avoid national opposition.
- Second, enhance the collaboration with the developing countries by matching climate ambitions to the requirements of economic growth. Alliances will be based on shared prosperity and not on moral superiority.
- Third, invest in new diplomacy, working together on green hydrogen, AI-based climate projection, and sustainable finance. The partnerships in technological areas can transform climate solidarity into a win-win.
Climate diplomacy is now the most plausible expression of European power in the world, a mixture of moral views and commercial strength. But leadership requires continuity. When Europe wants to be the green standard-bearer of the world, it should not only talk about the fairness, inclusion, and accountability they will have to do at home. The world does not need to be lectured on climate change, but rather, it requires partners who can provide solutions. Europe, with all its imperfections, is the only partner that can be such if it is faithful to its own green promise.
The author is a Governance & Public Policy graduate researcher at NUST Islamabad, specializing in education finance and health policy. She is committed to rigorous, data-led analysis that informs equitable, evidence-based reforms in Pakistan, particularly in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
