Stronger Sino-Euro ties key to green transition

Experts have called for stronger China-Europe cooperation on green transition based on their complementary experiences, urging the two sides to move from sharing experiences in renewable energy development toward testing practical solutions together.

They made the remarks on Monday at an open forum themed "Empower the High-Quality Development of Wind and Solar Power, Accelerate Regional Green and Just Transition", held during the 2026 annual general meeting of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development.

Pete Harrison, executive director of Environmental Defense Fund International, said the energy transition is not simply about replacing one energy source with another, but about using clean energy to support industrial transformation, create new economic opportunities and promote long-term prosperity in traditional energy regions.

Europe's experience shows that a just transition should not be limited to compensating for losses caused by industrial decline, he said. It requires long-term planning, sustained policy support, predictable financing and place-based strategies that connect industrial upgrading with workers, communities and new growth opportunities.

Harrison said China's "coal triangle", which covers Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces and Inner Mongolia and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions, has played an important role in supporting the country's energy security and economic development. The challenge now is to reduce dependence on coal-based development while building new drivers of growth.

The region's rich wind and solar resources offer a major opportunity, he said. More clean electricity could be consumed locally to support green hydrogen, decarbonize coal chemical industries and foster new industries, creating a cycle in which renewable energy supports industrial transformation and transformed industries generate more demand for green power.

But coordinating coal power transition, industrial decarbonization, renewable energy development and support for workers and communities requires efforts beyond individual projects or cities, he said.

He said a CCICED special policy study in which he participated recommends establishing a national energy green and just transition demonstration zone. Such a zone could connect national objectives with provincial and city-level implementation, coordinate local green energy use with outward power transmission, and help ensure that the costs and benefits of the transition are shared more fairly.

"This brings me to China-Europe cooperation. Europe and China bring different but complementary experience to this transition," he said.

"The next step should be to move from sharing experiences toward testing practical solutions together," Harrison said, adding that the proposed demonstration zone could provide a platform for the cooperation.

Zero-carbon industrial parks and zero-carbon trade demonstration zones could offer practical entry points linking green energy, industrial decarbonization, low-carbon products and green trade, he continued.

Gao Xiang, president of Dalian University of Technology, said the focus of renewable energy development in China is shifting from rapid capacity expansion to quality improvement and system integration. Power grids need to evolve from transmission networks into platforms for optimizing energy resources, while green hydrogen, green ammonia and green methanol will open new space for local consumption of renewable electricity, he said.

Gao also stressed the importance of flexible resources, including pumped storage, new-type energy storage, heat storage and virtual power plants. The key issue, he said, is whether such resources can be effectively mobilized, participate fairly in power markets and receive reasonable compensation for their regulatory value.

As green energy transition is a common global challenge, countries are exploring different pathways, Gao said. He noted that Europe is also vigorously promoting its green transition, and China and Europe have broad room for cooperation in low-carbon energy transition and related technologies.

Kristin Halvorsen, CCICED vice-chairperson and former director of the CICERO Center for International Climate Research, said no single technology can deliver the transition. Building flexible, reliable and affordable energy systems while cutting emissions requires expanding renewable energy, batteries, grids and other infrastructure, she said.

The transition must also maintain economic opportunities, create new sources of growth and support workers and communities affected by structural change, she said.

"For regions that have historically been dependent on coal, fossil fuels or other carbon-intensive industries, the energy transition must be done in a way that is just and economically sustainable," Halvorsen said.