Europe ‘getting more dependent on China’ for clean tech, EU climate chief warns

The EU is getting more dependent on China in its quest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and switch to green technologies, the EU’s climate chief Wopke Hoekstra warned, adding it is becoming “problematic” going forward.

Europe used to be a leader in solar panel manufacturing but lost its position to China more than ten years ago, Hoekstra remarked at a Brussels event on Tuesday (13 February).

“Now, this is mainly a Chinese thing,” the Dutch commissioner said during the event hosted by the economic think tank Bruegel.

“And, you know, we are getting redder while we’re getting greener,” Hoekstra said about China’s growing dominance on clean technologies.

“We’re getting more dependent on China in our quest to become greener, which is problematic”.

European solar panel manufacturers have warned they are “poised to shut down manufacturing lines” unless the EU takes emergency measures to save the sector.

Inventories have piled up in recent years due to an influx of cheap solar panels imported from China, and European manufacturers are now faced with a supply glut that is depressing demand for their products.

If buying up excess inventories isn’t possible, the industry urged the Commission to consider “safeguard” measures such as import tariffs and quotas.

However, the Commission has cautioned against this, saying import restrictions could impede the EU’s goal to increase solar generation capacity to 600 gigawatts by 2030, up from 263 GW today.

“Given that we currently rely to a very important degree on imports to reach EU solar deployment targets, any potential measure needs to be weighed against the objectives we have set ourselves when it comes to the energy transition,” said Mairead McGuinness, the EU commissioner in charge of financial services.

Solar panel manufacturing is not the only sector affected by Chinese imports. The EU is also facing increased competition from China over wind turbines and electric vehicles, which are being mass-produced cheaply there and exported to Europe.

Rather than importing, Hoekstra said Europe should take the lead when it comes to clean tech manufacturing.

“We should be at the forefront of this. Our businesses like to be at the forefront of this. And I’m absolutely convinced that there is a huge business opportunity here as well.”

Last week, EU legislators agreed on the proposed Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) to produce 40% of technologies like solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps and electric batteries on European soil by 2030.

[Edited by Alice Taylor]

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