European officials are seemingly not very concerned about the possibility that the continent’s green energy agenda may leave it vulnerable to Chinese aggression in the future, according to Politico. [emphasis, links added]
Trump administration officials met with a group of European officials in the U.K. earlier in April, warning the Europeans that China is taking advantage of the West’s climate policies to further its own geopolitical goals, Politico reported.
Despite the Trump administration’s cautions and Europe’s recent experiences relying on malign actors for energy, European officials mostly shrugged off the warning and signaled that the continent is still intending to make its energy system go green in the long run.
“It’s not really a surprise that Europe has a hard time understanding the need to pivot on energy security and any serious approach to sustainability,” Stephen Yates, a senior research fellow for China and national security policy at the Heritage Foundation, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“How does an increased dependency on the world’s leading polluting nation do anything for the planet, much less their goals, whether we agree with them or not?”
As Yates alluded, China is by far the world’s leading emitter and also a prolific polluter of the oceans.
China’s green energy giants, meanwhile, have been accused of engaging in unfair or predatory trade tactics, as well as benefiting from slave labor.
China dominates the global supply chains for green energy products, prompting some critics and analysts to warn for years that the West’s commitment to “net-zero” carbon emissions energy policy will make it even more reliant on China over time.
Notably, President Donald Trump warned European and German officials directly in 2018 — about four years before Russia invaded Ukraine — that depending too much on Russian gas would leave Europe, and especially Germany, “captive to Russia.”
Tommy Joyce, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) acting assistant secretary of international affairs, told delegates from 60 countries present at the meeting that green energy mandates are “harmful and dangerous” policies that will leave Europe vulnerable to “concessions to or coercion from China” in the future, according to Politico.
Joyce further argued [against] “putting abstract emission goals and the interests of our adversaries first and the security of our people last.”
Spectators in attendance for Joyce’s speech reportedly sat in silence after he concluded his remarks, according to Politico.
One European official who was there told the outlet that the “awkward but unanimous” reception of Joyce’s talk was “telling.”
U.S. officials continued emphasizing the same message in closed-door meetings at the summit and that the U.S. is a far more reliable energy partner than China, but their selling points were mostly ignored and thought to be out of touch with the event’s collaborative spirit, unnamed European officials told Politico, which granted them anonymity so that they could speak freely.
European officials, meanwhile, spent most of the summit saying that the continent’s energy future would be led by green energy rather than swapping out Russian imports for American imports, according to Politico.
Read rest at Daily Caller
