Global Warming Politics: The EU, China and Climate Change

One of the new issues in EU-China affairs is climate change. Although both sides are active players in multilateral climate negotiations and have committed themselves to emissions reductions and mitigation strategies, both sides pursue distinct interests. China places great importance to climate change but it is not yet fully willing to compromise economic growth prospects in return for tougher and verifiable emission cuts. The creation of a EU-China partnership on climate change has made few inroads, in particular because European companies are sceptical about technology transfers to China and because the EU's self-proclaimed leadership on climate change has so far been unable to break the Sino-US deadlock that have held up negotiations for the future global climate regime