At the China-EU Summit on 16 July 2018 in Beijing, the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the Council, Donald Tusk, and the Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang adopted a “Leaders' Statement on Climate Change and Clean Energy”. Moreover, the EU and China signed a Memorandum of Understanding to enhance cooperation on emissions trading.

The Leaders Statement on Climate Change and Clean Energy demonstrates the common desire of the EU and China to step up their cooperation on climate change and clean energy. In particular, the EU and China will further strengthen their bilateral cooperation on the formulation of long-term low greenhouse gas emission strategies, emission trading, energy efficiency, clean energy, low-emission transport and investment in climate and clean energy projects, as well as low-carbon cities cooperation and climate-related technology cooperation. In addition, the EU and China will collaborate in various multilateral fora such as the G20, the International Civil Aviation Organization or the International Maritime Organization in order to facilitate a smooth transition to environment-friendly and low-cost economy. Both countries also underlined the need to advance the implementation of the Paris Agreement under the UNFCCC process, and to get the Paris Agreement Work Programme.

President of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker said: “We have underlined our joint, strong determination to fight climate change and demonstrate global leadership. It shows our commitment to multilateralism and recognises that climate change is a global challenge affecting all countries on Earth. There is no time for us to sit back and watch passively. Now is the time for decisive action.”

The Memorandum of Understanding on EU-China cooperation on emissions trading (“MoU”) builds on the EU-China Climate Change Partnership. Since both the EU and China acknowledge the urgency of addressing climate change and recognize emission trading system as a key tool to tackle climate change, the MoU aims to enhance strategic cooperation and to establish a dialogue in following areas: implementation of the trading system in the EU and China, promotion of Emission Trading System, exploration of possible forms of cooperation between emission trading systems. EU-China cooperation should include an annual policy dialogue in order to exchange information, experience and expertise, joint organisation of seminars and workshops, joint research activities and ad-hoc working groups.

“Further developing cooperation between the two largest emission trading systems of the world is not only in our mutual interest but also necessary to tackle common challenges in the mid- and longer term. The newly established policy dialogue will be instrumental in this context,” said Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete.