The European Union and China will this Friday exact their revenge on US President Donald Trump after he decided to pull out of
the Paris Agreement on climate change.
The EU-China joint summit will see the unveiling of the first ever joint climate and clean energy statement backed by leaders.
The unprecedented announcement, exclusively obtained by EURACTIV.com, drips with veiled condemnation of the climate-sceptic Trump.
It is the result of eight months of secret talks and three rounds of ministerial-level negotiations, led for the EU by Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete. It has been backed by the EU member states.
The meetings began in November last year, the very month that Trump was elected.
The statement was planned to heap pressure on the US to stay in the deal, which cuts emissions and caps global temperatures, but will now act as a rebuke to Trump.
Beijing and Brussels will make “the highest political commitment” to the Paris Agreement and “call on all parties to uphold it” in an alliance that will isolate the US.
The EU and China will promise to work together on global strategies for climate, including cooperating on legislation and regulation.
They will vow to increase the ambition of the landmark deal in a stern riposte to Trump’s efforts to weaken it. “[We] are determined to forge ahead with further policies and measures,” the statement will say.
Climate change and the shift to clean energy is “an imperative more important now than ever”, and a threat to national security and a contributing factor to instability and the displacement of people, according to the document.
The statement yokes together climate change and free trade – two of Trump’s biggest bugbears – in what is, despite the diplomatic language, a clear criticism of his policies.