China and Europe’s Partnership for a More Sustainable World. Challenges and Opportunities

For many years EU and China have been developing a dialogue and effective cooperation initiatives on the need to face the environmental issues. They have found common ground on many key aspects and cooperation has been extensive in several fields. Diplomatic efforts have contributed to strengthen partnering opportunities between the two countries. EU-China cooperation for environment protection has a quite long history. While the relation started as a mainly trade-oriented relationship, it has become a wide partnership, which has benefited from a sound institutional framework. The cooperation has embraced climate change issues, with strong linkages between energy security and environmental security. Several aspects can be cited as drivers of the European interest in strengthening environment partnership with China. Europe has a comparative advantage in the field and has the opportunity to use this to gain bargaining power. China is a profitable market, both for the export of European environmental goods and for European firms seeking to invest locally. Moreover, helping China to diversify its energy mix and to improve its energy efficiency would have positive spillovers for the EU in terms of reduced global demand. From the Chinese perspective, China has several reasons to engage with the EU, which include the latter’s long experience in this sector and China’s need to implement “more sustainable growth strategies”. There are clear synergies between China’s search for a more sustainable growth path and EU capacities in environmental protection and renewable energy technologies. This book gathers some of the main findings of the EU-funded project POREEN on Partnering opportunities between Europe and China in the renewable energies and environmental industries. As a Marie Curie action, Poreen’s goal was to produce research results which inform policy, while improving knowledge and research skills. In fact, research outputs were developed leveraging academic mobility in China and Europe, particularly of young researchers. Their common objective was to seek to highlight opportunities to expand and develop this important relationship in a way that moves both regions towards a more sustainable future. In a four year time frame, researchers analysed the opportunities and potentials to boost cooperation between China and Europe in this important area. They used a variety of research approaches and academic perspectives, combining economic, legal and engineering perspectives. The economic dimensions of the project included the identification of critical issues, gaps and potential for bilateral foreign direct investments and trade in the broad area of green industries. Legal research had a similar objective, but focused on offshore oil and gas extraction, renewable energies, corporate responsibility and environmental legislation. The team's engineering research relates to energy efficiency and carbon dioxide reduction, particularly concerning transportation and low-carbon buildings. The book is structured in three interrelated and connected parts. The first part has an economic and policy orientations. The seven chapters examine different aspects of trade and foreign direct investments relations between Europe and China, in the renewable energies and/or environmental industries. Bilateral trade and FDI flows are analysed, also in the light of Chinese and European green policy and cooperation initiatives. Authors identify obstacles, barriers and difficulties faced by European and Chinese firms in initiating, maintaining and consolidating both trade and investment initiatives in China and Europe, respectively. Key factors and issues to be addressed to further stimulate Europe-China trade and investment flows are considered as well. The second part sets the legal framework of Europe-China cooperation. The first two papers describe the Chinese environmental protection system, analysing both national laws and governance measures. Then, the focus is on three specific themes: the electric sector in China, the Corporate Social Responsibility in a comparative perspective and the legal framework about civil liability for environmental damages deriving from energy misuses. The third part is focused on engineering-related research activity. Two main research areas are developed, both related to energy efficiency and carbon dioxide reduction: mobility and the transportation sector and low carbon buildings. The four chapters highlight the state of the art of the engineering research group in key areas (mobility and the transportation sector and low carbon buildings), that might have a huge potential impact on bilateral cooperation between Europe and China. One topic is related to the use of methane and biomethane, both in its compressed and liquid form, as alternative fuel to reduce the environmental impact and GHG emissions in the transport sector. In general, biomass as feedstock energy source in China and its potential has been evaluated in detail. Whereas on the topic of low carbon buildings, the use of heat pumps and district cooling/heating networks has been considered in order to increase the energy efficiency for space heating and domestic hot water production. Moreover, smart devices in buildings, studied on experimental test rigs, for thermal comfort and consumption reduction have been presented.