China-EU ties fashion green future

Cooperation between the two is seen as essential for success at the Paris climate summit

China and Europe need to form more strategic alliances to combat global climate change through policy cooperation and deepening of green policy integration, experts say.

Such ties are seen by the low carbon industry as a crucial step toward further government-level discussions at December's United Nations climate summit in Paris.

Primary school students from China and Belgium learn to do experiments on environment protection in Brussels in June. Provided to China Daily

Crucial to any alliance is recognition from both sides of similar climate change challenges and opportunities faced by Europe and China, according to a roundtable discussion held in September at London's Chatham House think tank.

Antony Froggatt, a senior research fellow at Chatham House, says there are many opportunities for climate change collaboration, and one area is China's urbanization, because urban infrastructure has significant implications on resource consumption and energy efficiency.

This is an important area where Europe can offer some expertise to China, given that Europe has also gone through the urbanization process and has technological knowledge and expertise in the area, Froggatt says.

China's urban dwellers increased from 40.4 percent of the total population in 2005 to 52.3 percent in 2012. They are expected to reach 70 percent by 2030. According to forecasts, China may have 200-300 million inhabitants moving from rural to urban areas in the next few years.

This debate is important because the way urban infrastructure is developed can mean the use of fossil fuels is locked in once construction is complete. Residential living, including the consumption of goods, food, heating and electricity, account for nearly four-fifths of urban energy consumption.

It is also important to help China find a way to reduce dependency on certain resources such as coal and oil, by increasing the range of materials it uses for energy production, Froggatt says.

China should also consider how to maintain growth while transforming energy consumption by embedding renewable energy into the economic structure in an efficient way, he says.

Nick Mabey, chief executive and a founder director of E3G, a not-for-profit company, says that the relationship between the European Union and China is becoming closer from a political perspective and there is a pressing need for both sides to better understand each other.