par Goron, Coraline
Editeur scientifique Reuter, Etienne;Men, Jing
Référence China-EU:Green Cooperation, World Scientific, Singapour, page (67-83)
Publication Publié, 2014-08-08
Partie d'ouvrage collectif
Résumé : Low carbon society objectives have won a large support from the political elites in the EU and China and have become routinely invoked on both sides as the most promising response to the challenge of climate change. Praised as a common response to a common challenge, these political objectives adopted in both regions have raised great expectations of collective action and increased bilateral and strategic cooperation on climate change and energy security. These hopes were embodied in the EU-China partnership on climate change. Yet, whereas some cooperation has indeed taken place, paradoxically this convergence of policy goals has also led to growing trade and political tensions. Therefore, this paper asks whether the emphasis on low carbon development strategies in China and the EU is actually capable of triggering the expected benefits for cooperation on climate change. It argues that these contradictory patterns of cooperation and competition illustrate a tension between environmental objectives and economic competitiveness, which the low-carbon society concept was supposed to address. The use of this concept in the public discourse of both the EU and China has instead contributed the deepening an ‘expectation-capability gap” regarding the outcomes of the bilateral “strategic partnership”. In particular, it demonstrates that the threats of ‘trade wars’ over low-carbon energy technologies indicate a growing tendency to construe these technologies as strategic national resources and crucial assets for ensuring national economic growth and jobs, tilting the balance towards multipolar competition for emerging markets and clouding the horizon of the ‘green’ “end of history”.

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