Ribera and Chinese envoy push green shipping cooperation in Brussels
Senior EU and Chinese officials met in Brussels to signal a shared push for decarbonising maritime transport, an essential step for aligning regulatory standards in a hard-to-abate sector.
The European Commission and China’s diplomatic mission to the EU jointly hosted a seminar on green transition cooperation on 13 July. The event, organised with the Europe Jacques Delors think-tank, gathered over 100 political, business and academic figures to discuss decarbonising maritime transport.
Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s executive vice-president, attended alongside China’s ambassador to the EU, Cai Run, former WTO director-general Pascal Lamy and Geneviève Pons, president of Europe Jacques Delors. Their joint presence underscores the strategic importance both powers place on cleaning up global supply chains, specifically the shipping sector.
Ambassador Cai framed the discussions as the start of the second 50 years of China-EU relations. He stated China is willing to deepen cooperation on the low-carbon transition, the circular economy and green shipping. "Together, the two sides can leverage respective strengths and achieve mutual benefit at a higher level," Cai said, noting this would help address global climate challenges.
Ribera praised China’s domestic green achievements and highlighted that both powers prioritise the low-carbon transition of maritime transport. She argued they should collaborate to improve multilateral governance and promote global green development.
Former WTO director-general Pascal Lamy described strengthening EU-China climate cooperation as "an inevitable choice and a practical necessity that bears on the well-being of all humanity." For European shipping companies and investors, this signals a potential avenue to align on multilateral governance. Such alignment is necessary to establish unified standards for alternative maritime fuels and emissions reporting across transcontinental trade routes.
The seminar’s specific focus on maritime transport was further emphasised by Yue Guoyong, director general of the Department of International Cooperation at China’s Ministry of Transport. He joined European representatives in calling for an expansion of converging interests in low-carbon shipping. Finding these areas of mutual agreement will directly shape how European and Chinese businesses approach the transition to zero-carbon vessels.
