Just two weeks before the start of the global climate conference COP30, financing of the fight against climate change is being undermined by erosion of credibility. To the Europe’s frustration, the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions, China, refuses to set ambitious goals.
The United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement has left the European Union and China as the global leaders on climate change. Though the EU has a relatively long history of climate targets (including the 2050 climate neutrality goal), China has only recently pledged to cut its emissions by seven to ten percent from peak levels by 2035.
The two superpowers also differ on the issue of financing the fight against climate change. While the EU invested nearly €32 billion in climate change measures last year, the Chinese have not disclosed their contribution beyond the bilatetral support to vairous countries.
China must spend more: Commissioner Hoekstra
“China needs to spend more to boost global climate finance given its increasing economic clout,” said this week Wopke Hoekstra, Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth. Mr Hoekstra also critisized the fact that China continues to define itself as a ’developing country’ in an attempt to justify its minimal contribution to global financing for the fight against climate change.
Europe simply does not have the pockets to finance measures against climete change by itself. — Wopke Hoekstra, Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth
“In fact, China is an upper middle income country. And they have done an amazing job in terms of creating affluence,” Commissioner Hoekstra said. “China, Gulf States, and some other countries are invited to make sure that we deal with this problem (climate change) more effectively and put more money on the table,” added Mr Hoekstra. He also warned that “Europe just simply does not have the pockets to do that by itself”.
Beijing’s emmission cut plans ’disappointment’
At the New York Climate Summit in September 2025, China pledged to cut emissions between 7 and 10 per cent by 2035 from peak levels. Beijing, however, did not indicate the baseline year for this calculation. Commissioner Hoekstra slammed this figure as ’disappointing’. “Any number that is potentially below 10 per cent has huge ramifications for the world climate action going forward,” Mr Hoekstra said.
Despite being the world’s second-largest economy, China has so far not contributed to the Green Climate Fund or the Loss and Damage Fund.
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The recent analysis by Bruegel think tank clearly shows that China prefers bilateralism and South–South cooperation over formal multilateral commitments. That allows showcasing soft power but avoiding systemic burden-sharing, Bruegel’s experts note. As of late 2024 and early 2025, China had signed more than 50 climate cooperation agreements with 42 developing countries, from low-carbon demonstration zones, climate mitigation and adaptation projects and capacity-building workshops, to initiatives such as the Africa Solar Belt.
EU’s contribution exceeded 30 billion euro in 2024
In 2024, the European Union and its 27 member states contributed €31.7bn in climate finance from public sources and mobilised an additional amount of €11.0bn of private finance to support developing countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
The Council published these figures earlier this week in preparation for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), which will take place from 10 to 21 November in Belém, Brazil. The figures are based on the EU climate finance reporting rules laid down in the governance regulation.
