The EU has outlined a new global climate and energy vision, an international strategy to secure Europe’s place in global markets, focused on delivering mutual economic benefits, decarbonisation and energy security.
“Today, we’re taking a more strategic, results-focused approach to climate and energy diplomacy,” said Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra: “The EU has shown that climate action and economic growth can go hand in hand. By strengthening global partnerships, we aim to boost clean investments, reform finance, and make the clean transition a worldwide success.”
With the strategy, the EU is aiming to be the ‘industrial powerhouse’ supplying and providing clean tech and adaptation solutions to countries around the world, and to create new business opportunities for its own clean tech industry.
This will involve using diplomacy to protect core EU interests, promoting standards for a fair transition by assisting EU partners to develop theirs, and addressing new security threats and challenges that endanger both European interests and those of its partners.
The vision proposes to ramp up the EU’s clean technology manufacturing capacity to reach 15% of the global tech market, while improving its industrial competitiveness.
The vision also reaffirms the EU’s commitment to a rules-based international order. The EU’s message to global partners is: ‘we are working to fulfil the goals set out in the Paris Agreement; we are a reliable partner that plays by the rules; and we are open for business and cooperation’.
The EU’s global climate and energy vision presents a series of strategic actions for global energy and climate engagement to drive the clean transition, competitiveness and clean technologies and investments. These include:
- Injecting political momentum: Encouraging multilateral and bilateral fora and initiatives to deliver on the Paris Agreement and Global Stocktake commitments.
- Boosting EU clean tech businesses internationally and enabling climate resilient investments: Organising business fora, setting up an EU external Clean Transition Business Council, scaling up investments and establishing business models for climate adaptation.
- Supporting and connecting European businesses with global investments: Making full use of the Global Gateway Investment Hub to assist joint investments projects outside the EU and the proposed Global Europe envelope to support EU business abroad and raise demand for EU technology.
- Expanding networks of mutually beneficial partnerships for global and resilient clean value chains, through free trade agreements, clean trade and investment partnerships and other instruments.
- Reforming global financial institutions for the clean and resilient transition and stepping up EU’s climate security work.
