European politicians have ignored the call by the administration of US President Donald Trump to reject “flawed” climate policies that benefit China and to emulate the US commitment to fossil fuels.
This was reported by POLITICO.
This message was delivered by Tommy Joyce, Acting Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy, in his speech at the Future of Energy Security Summit in the United Kingdom. The event, organized by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in partnership with the UK government, brought together 120 high-level officials from 60 countries from around the world.
During his speech, Tommy Joyce said that clean energy policies are “harmful and dangerous” and leave Europe open to “concessions or coercion from China.” According to him, since China controls a large part of the clean energy supply chain, a hasty transition to green energy means “putting abstract emissions targets and the interests of our adversaries first and the security of our people last.”
What was the reaction of Europeans?
POLITICO reports that Joyce's speech was met with silence.
“The uncomfortable but unanimous moment was telling,” said one European official who was present.
Nevertheless, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer acknowledged that fossil fuels will be part of their energy mix for decades to come, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen added that the European Union “has not forgotten how the United States immediately helped us with energy when we needed it during the energy crisis.”
But the ministers who gathered were mostly looking beyond fossil fuels, POLITICO reports. European politicians, in particular, said during the summit that their future does not involve replacing Russian gas with American imports, but is primarily about clean energy.
According to POLITICO, on Friday, behind closed doors, the American delegation again tried to push the thesis that the United States is the most reliable energy partner in the world and again criticized China.
Three officials spoken to by the publication said that the US statements were largely ignored and were seen as inconsistent with the cooperative atmosphere of the meetings.
“The administration is just fundamentally destroying the ability of the US government to spread its influence around the world. And a lot of this is actually hampering the Trump administration's own goals, whether it's reducing the trade imbalance or whether it's countering China. We're just undermining the trust of a lot of other important partners and allies,” Jesse Young, a former climate official at the US State Department, told reporters.
What the EU thinks about the prospects
Europeans are not blind to the risk posed by China's dominance in clean energy supply chains, especially in the production of solar panels, electric vehicles, batteries and rare minerals used in many high-tech, low-carbon machines, POLITICO says.
“As long as we remain dependent on fossil fuels, there will be no energy security for Europe. But when it comes to clean energy, we also need to be less dependent on imported technologies, because otherwise there will be no energy security in Europe,” said French Minister of Industry and Energy Marc Ferracci.
But according to Starmer and other European leaders like von der Leyen, American fossil fuels are not the answer.
“Clean, domestic renewables not only strengthen our immediate resilience, but of course they also contribute to creating a huge number of jobs, more innovation in our own economy,” von der Leyen said.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, President Trump signed an executive order to restore the American coal industry, describing it as “clean, beautiful, and essential to national energy security.”
