21.06.2024

Beijing resents new tariffs on electric cars

The fifth EU-China high-level dialogue on environment and climate, held in Brussels on June 18, served to highlight Beijing's concerns over trade restrictions on clean technologies, reports Euractiv. It was also noted that a climate finance agreement will be crucial to making COP29 in Baku a successful meeting.

In 2023, EC Executive Vice-President responsible for the Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, was in Beijing to meet Vice Premier Ding Xuesian for the fourth round of talks. The talks then helped pave the way for the COP28 climate conference, which was widely hailed as a success.

This year, the Chinese returned the visit for the fifth edition of the forum amid the brewing trade conflict between Brussels and Beijing and the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Timmermans' successor, EC executive vice-president Maros Šefčovič, has made no secret of his ambition to build on last year's momentum.

"It is important not to lose sight of what matters - the survival of the human race and the maintenance of a habitable planet." The color of our cooperation must remain green," he said at the meeting between the EC and the Chinese delegation.

Rates are rising

Hours before the high-level meeting, a leading Chinese think tank took care to highlight Beijing's displeasure with the looming electric vehicle (EV) tariffs, which the EU plans to impose – and made a clear link to global climate action.

"This new EV tariff is really unnecessary and sets a double standard," said Huayao Wang, president of the Center on China and Globalization. “Delivering on climate ambitions under the Paris Agreement will require China to produce clean technologies in a cost-effective, reliable and efficient manner. However, this also affects other nations that buy these Chinese goods,” he added.

This conflict was not resolved during the high-level meeting. After the talks, the representatives of both countries admitted that "there are areas where the EU and China do not understand each other".

Climate finance

The meeting was also an important step on the route from Dubai, where COP28 was held, to Baku and COP29. Along with the updated climate goals, there is also the main issue of financing the fight against climate change.

"Both countries agreed to support the focus of Azerbaijan's COP presidency on a new 2025 climate finance target," the EU said.

Europe is at the forefront of efforts to persuade Beijing to contribute to the financing of poorer countries struggling to invest in the decarbonisation of their economies.

China, the world's second-largest economy by nominal GDP, currently has no such obligation, having been classified as a "developing country" back in 1992.

At a recent climate meeting held in Bonn, Germany, the EU and other developed countries spent two weeks unsuccessfully seeking new terms to include China, as well as other wealthy, high-emitting countries, as participants in climate finance.