Climate: China and EU sign clean energy partnership 

China and the EU have signed a partnership on climate change on 5 September at the conclusion of a bilateral summit in Beijing.

The partnership mainly covers clean coal technology with the aim of "demonstrating, in China and the EU, advanced 'zero-emissions' coal technology" by 2020. Under the agreement, the EU would give China the technology and help invest in a new power station. 

The technology involves capturing carbon from coal-fired power plants to store it in geological cavities under the earth's surface, "for example in exploited oil or gas fields or in sealed geological strata, thereby avoiding CO2 emissions into the atmosphere".

Another objective - also to be reached by 2020 - will be to "significantly reduce the cost of key energy technologies and promote their deployment and dissemination". The technologies will be determined later on in discussions with the Chinese, said Commission spokeswoman Barbara Helfferich. 

In addition, a number of key areas have been identified for technical co-operation, aside from clean coal:

• Energy efficiency, renewable energy and energy conservation;
• Methane recovery and use
• Hydrogen (fuel cell)
• Power generation and transmission

Asked by EurActiv, the Commission said the EU-China partnership was “significant” but had to be considered as a “first step” towards more concrete commitments. “We need other things,” said DG Environment spokeswoman Barbara Helfferich, adding it remained to be seen “whether we can agree on general objectives” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the UN COP meeting in Montreal later this year. 

The partnership was welcomed by the WWF as a "signal that both China and the EU recognise climate change as a key geopolitical issue." ."Unlike the recent Asia-Pacific Pact with the United States and other countries, this agreement includes policies, markets and technologies, which should lead to real and significant action," said Jennifer Morgan, director of the global WWF Climate Change Programme.

Highlighting that China plans to invest "an estimated €1.5 trillion in its power sector by 2030," WWF says the partnership will "offer the opportunity to ensure the next generation of energy installations in China will be as low carbon as possible, and to avoid a lock-in in climate-damaging infrastructures". 

"An EU-Chinese partnership to use the market to leverage a low carbon economy is very exciting," she concluded.