Renewable energy in EU-China relations. Policy interdependence and its geopolitical implications

Renewable energy (RE) is an increasingly mature form of energy production that is starting to reshape international energy relations. Yet despite the growing importance of renewables, its role in international relations is in many ways unclear. This paper studies the role of renewable energy policies in EU-China relations, two leading powers in the field of RE. The geopolitics of renewables literature is focussed on ‘piped energy’, that is the effect of renewable energy has on flows of energy and the underlying infrastructure. The case of EU-China relations is, however, marked primarily by the absence of this type of geopolitical interactions. However, renewables play an increasingly important role in the political relations between the two blocs. To capture the role of renewables between the EU and China, this article uses the concept of policy interdependence in four policy areas related to RE, namely climate, energy, industry, and trade and investment policy. While these are often seen as separate policy fields, they are all related to renewable energy. As Keohane and Nye suggest, there is no clear or consistent hierarchy in these areas. The findings of the study indicate that renewable energy has contributed to greater alignment between the EU and China in the past, but increasing recourse to policy choices based on national priorities creates obstacles to further cooperation. Geopolitically, this points to a situation where both the EU and China seek cooperation while at the same time, they are seeking to defend their own preferences.