Trump’s efforts to split Europe and China on clean energy fall flat

LONDON — The Trump administration arrived in the United Kingdom last week with a simple message: China is a malign actor, benefitting from misguided climate policies, and the world is better off copying America's newfound embrace of fossil fuels.

It was met with a shrug.

The gathering of 60 nations, together in London to debate the future of energy security, had a few warm words for their United States guests. “Fossil fuel will be part of our energy mix for decades to come,” U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer acknowledged. The European Union had “not forgotten how the United States immediately stepped in with energy when we needed it during the energy crisis,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen added. 

But the gathered ministers were largely looking beyond fossil fuels. European politicians, especially, spent the summit saying their future did not involve swapping Russian gas for American imports, but was led primarily by clean energy.

That's exactly the conclusion the U.S. wants to avoid. 

Clean energy policies are “harmful and dangerous” and leave Europe open to “concessions to or coercion from China,” Tommy Joyce, acting assistant secretary of international affairs at the U.S. Energy Department, told delegates. Given China holds sway over large parts of the clean energy supply chain, rushing to go green meant “putting abstract emission goals and the interests of our adversaries first and the security of our people last,” he said.

Joyce’s speech was met with silence. The “awkward but unanimous” moment was “telling,” said one European official who was in the room.

Responding to Joyce’s comments, U.K. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told POLITICO: “I think overall, I would say that the general tenor of these discussions indicates where people are going, which is toward a clean energy transition.”

Gone quiet

Behind closed doors on Friday, the U.S. delegation tried again to push the message that it was the most reliable energy partner in the world — and again slammed China, according to the European official. 

Three officials, who like others were granted anonymity as they were not authorized to disclose the private meetings, said U.S. interventions were largely ignored and considered out of step with the cooperative atmosphere of the meetings.

“It was ideology versus reality, and this time ideology seemed pretty quiet and out of place, fundamentally missing the point,” said Pete Chalkley, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit think tank, who was present for the first day of the talks.

“The administration is just fundamentally dismantling the ability of the U.S. government to project influence around the world, and a lot of that is actually going to handicap the Trump administration's own goals, whether it's on reducing trade imbalances or countering China,” Jesse Young, a former climate official in the U.S. State Department, told reporters. “We're just shredding our credibility with so many other important partners and allies.” 

The U.S. Department of Energy did not respond to a request for comment. When POLITICO asked Joyce, who is in his role until a political appointment is made, for an interview, he said: “I don’t really talk to the media that much.”

Here vs. there

Europeans are not blind to the risk posed by China’s dominance of clean energy supply chains, especially the manufacturing of solar panels, electric vehicles, batteries and the rare minerals used in many high-tech, low-carbon machines. 

"Concentration of the energy sources is always a risky business," said Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, which co-hosted the summit.

French Minister for Industry and Energy Marc Ferracci laid out the bind.

“As long as we remain massively dependent on fossil fuels, there will be no energy security for Europe,” he said. But when it comes to clean energy, “we also must be less dependent on imported technologies because otherwise there will be no energy security in Europe,” he added.

But American fossil fuels are not the answer, according to Starmer, Miliband and other European leaders like von der Leyen. Rather, they favor the dream of growing cleantech industries closer to home that rival China.

“Clean, homegrown renewables not only strengthen our direct resilience, they also spur, of course, huge jobs, more innovation within our own economy,” said von der Leyen.

“Despite the differences” with the Trump administration, Miliband said, “we can find common ground.” In particular, British officials think they can pursue work with the Trump administration on nuclear and geothermal technology. 

“I'm really pleased that the U.S. is at this summit,” Miliband said. “Because I think it's important for the U.S., which is a really important energy player, to be part of these discussions.”