The Sino-EU Sustainable Green Technological Competition and Cooperation

Despite the current geopolitical conflicts, there is potential for Sino-EU cooperation in the field of sustainable green technological development with a desire of both trading blocs to contribute to the Paris Climate Agreement (2015). Both the EU’s Green Deal (2019) and China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025) are designed to provide policy frameworks for this with commitments to achieve a carbon-neutral future with a cleaner energy supply. The Sino-EU green cooperation can accelerate their commitment to zero emissions, give other countries an incentive for green technological development, and provide assistance where necessary to climate-vulnerable developing countries seeking to green their economies in accordance with the commitment of the 28th annual UN meeting on climate change (2023). Despite the Sino-EU green cooperation, there is increasing global competition for crucial resources and preservation of green energy supply chains to create clean technology needed to decarbonize the economy. The excessive concentration of China’s supply chains plus its own clean technology needs as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases may pose risks that China will not be able to supply sufficient green technology to the rest of the world. Addressing these risks requires more global green cooperation, whether or not through a “green technology partnership” that, through a network of countries, takes responsibility for different parts of the supply chain that would increase the production of green technology above that of China, and at the same time ensure that extraction, refining, and innovation are less concentrated in one country. In recent years, the EU has become increasingly dependent on the most advanced technologies from China, resulting in all kinds of vulnerabilities and threats. The digital economy plays a crucial role in accelerating economic development and achieving inclusive growth and sustainable development. The biggest challenge for the EU in this regard is to balance EU economic security with its decarbonization objectives. The growing role of modern technology also leads to greater cyber risks and creates more cybersecurity challenges that require greater international cooperation. However, so far, the Sino-EU cooperation on cybersecurity has been very limited due to differing policies and divergent Chinese state-led versus EU rights-driven digital regulations.