On 14 September, China and European leaders held a summit on an investment agreement. What does the timing of this announcement imply for the climate dialogue? How can we position ourselves in a green dynamism and common ground to give access to these green technologies in all countries? What are the opportunities for companies and industries whose primary goal is to create value?
Wen Cui-Pottier, Guillaume Henry, Zhao Wei and Nicolas Imbert discussed these issues.
The need for law in a perspective of innovation and transition emerged:
Every legal rule can be subject to an ecological analysis. Existing legal rules must be improved by placing them under an ecological prism. 1% of green technology patents are filed in Africa and 3% in Latin America. More than patents, the cause of the technological divide between developed and emerging countries is the know-how that underpins innovation. Multinationals must be encouraged to collaborate because 70% of patents are filed by large groups that have significant cross-border networks and are the most effective in implementing technologies and knowledge in the countries where they are present. It also shows that China relies on a competitive and attractive industrial base to develop its green industry. Greening an economy means changing its industry.
China relies on an ambition with three interactive layers: the central government, the active participation of localities, and the investments of Chinese companies. Chinese companies have an ambitious strategy and are positioned upstream and downstream of the supply chain. They are also present on foreign markets. China and Europe must enter into a competitive collaboration. Today, Chinese and European companies are actually collaborating while governments are in confrontation. Finally, two trends complement each other: 1) G. Thunberg’s “How dare?”, which underlines the lack of concrete investment by developed countries in green development, and 2) many effective and agile sectoral initiatives at local level.
Are we in a logic of license to cooperate or of a grey economy to be reinvented? Between green development and ecological civilisation emerges the idea of a possible co-construction with a realistic vision of resilience.
Download the summary of the debates (in French) here
Minister Brune Poirson, Ding Yifan from the State Council of China, Thomas Melonio, Director at AFD and Raphael Schoentgen, former President of Hydrogen Europe explored the very strong potential for ecological, industrial and financial cooperation between China and the EU, fuelled by existing trade partnerships and China’s massive holding of euro reserves (26%), but also the need for dialogues on climate visions as a policy projection, technological and financial cooperation (notably in third countries) if the Paris Agreement is to succeed.
A first cycle of cooperation is coming to an end in the French case with the nuclear, aeronautical and automotive industries. Given the diplomatic importance of the climate for the EU, a second round of cooperation must be in line with a greening of investments and trade between these two economic areas. Current political positions are strong, but are there economic positions of the same nature and strength?
A vision of the world including trade with other areas is enshrined in the Green Deal, and clear territorial missions exist on both sides: the European Commission’s Green Deal financed with recovery plans (with the support of the EIB), and the Belt & Road Initiative, financed by loans between governments, export banks (China Development Bank), or multilateral banks (AIIB).
Practical proposals have been put forward: the hydrogen technology sector in particular is being structured in China and the Chinese authorities see a major opportunity for cooperation with Europeans (for example with the French firm Air Liquide, which is already successfully equipping several Asian countries with hydrogen infrastructures by mastering the liquefaction of hydrogen).
Also, China could become a debt lender to other states and could take a full role in international debt restructuring mechanisms – notably in the Paris Club, securing the common issue of refinancing.
Download the summary of the discussion (in French) here
Download the verbatim report of the discussion (in French) here
Irina Bokova, former Director General of UNESCO, Joël Ruet and Jean-Claude Beaujour, lawyer and Vice-President of the France-Americas Foundation, were among the keynote speakers of the Bridge Tank’s forum on the Sino-European relations and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on them. This event, co-hosted with the Chinese Embassy to France, gathered politicians and experts to discuss about the evolution of globalisation, green investment and finance, human exchanges and green transitions in France, China and the European Union. This forum took place on the 15th of October 2020.
The Bridge Tank gathered Irina Bokova, former Director General of UNESCO, Brune Poirson, Vice-President of the United Nations Environment Assembly and former Secretary of State to the French Minister for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition, Edmond Alphandery former Minister for the Economy, François Loos, former French Minister for Industry and former Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade, Brice Lalonde, former Minister for the Environment, Jean-Claude Beaujour, lawyer and Vice-President of the France-Americas Foundation, Joël Ruet, Sylvie Bermann, former French Ambassador to China, the United Kingdom and Russia, Stéphane Gompertz, former French Ambassador to Austria and Ethiopia and Africa Director at the Quai d’Orsay, Geneviève des Rivières, former Canadian Ambassador and President of the Latin America and Caribbean Institute, Raphaël Schoentgen, former CTO and Executive Committee Member of ENGIE and former President of Hydrogen Europe, Thomas Melonio, Innovation, Research and Knowledge Executive Director of the French Development Agency, Deborah Furet, Research Director of the EHESS, and Emmanuel Dupuy, President of the Prospective and Security in Europe Institute, among the keynote speakers of The Bridge Tank’s forum.
On this occasion, the experts and political figures exchanged about the changing globalisation, green investment and finance, evolving human exchanges and green transitions in France, China and the European Union.
This event, co-organises with the Chinese Embassy in Paris, focused on the Sino-European relations and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on them, and took place on the 15th of October 2020.
The panelists of the Bridge Tank’s forum took part in a working lunch on the 15th of October 2020. Among them were Sylvie Bermann, former French Ambassador to China, the United Kingdom and Russia, François Loos, former French Minister Delegate for Industry and former Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade, Joël Ruet, Raphaël Schoentgen, former CTO and Executive Committee Member of ENGIE and former President of Hydrogen Europe, and Henri de Grossouvre, Founder and Honorary President of Paris-Berlin-Moscow.
This event, co-hosted with the Chinese Embassy to France, gathered politicians and experts to discuss the evolution of globalisation, green investment and finance, human exchanges and green transitions in France, China and the European Union.
On October 2, 2020, François Quentin, former head of the Huawei France Board and President of the Mines-Telecom Institute, General Eric de la Maisonneuve, Founder and President of the Strategy Society, and Alain Frachon, journalist at Le Monde and former foreign correspondent in Washington D.C., joined The Bridge Tank’s team for an internal work meeting focusing on China’s future and the different evolutions the Sino-European relationship could go through.
The Bridge Tank was represented by its chairman Joël Ruet and members of its board: Irina Bokova, former Director General of UNESCO, Stéphane Gompertz, former French Ambassador to Austria and Ethiopia, Jean-Claude Beaujour, lawyer and Vice-President of the France-Amériques Foundation, Vincent Perrin, former OECD representative to China and French Trade Minister Advisor, and Jasmine Zerinini Cowper-Coles, former senior advisor to the Secretary General, Secrétariat général de la Défense et de la Sécurité nationale (Prime Minister’s Office) & council member of the Chatham House Council.
This meeting took place under Chatham House rules.
Ban Ki-moon, former UN Secretary-General, Liu Zhenmin, UN Under-Secretary-General, Justin Yifu Lin, honorary Dean of the National School of Development under Peking University and former Senior Vice-President of the World Bank, Yves Leterme, former Belgian Prime Minister, James Kimonyo, Rwanda Ambassador to China, Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and professor at Columbia University, Zhang Linxiu, Director of the UN Environment Programme-International Ecosystem Management Partnership, and Sandrine Nduwimana, China-Africa Business Council, were among the keynote speakers of the Forum on the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and China’s Poverty Reduction Experience. This event was co-organised by The Bridge Tank and the CGTN Think Tank. It took place on the 17th and 18th of September 2020 online, and gathered over 140 representatives from 39 countries. Among the suggestions to reach the poverty eradication goals were the introduction of a temporary basic income for people just below or above the poverty line, deworming programs, as well as investments in children’s health, women’s rights and educational opportunities. Human ethics and management must be at the centre of the building process of a sustainable world without poverty. This event was broadcasted on CGTN, CCTV News, People’s Daily, Xinhua and Xinwenlianbo.
July 26th-30th, the progressive family resumed meeting, to discuss the current global and US situation, the future of Europe, and topics such as the lifelong learning systems, narratives of wars and progressive movements of care, energy renaissance, the Balkans, the BRICS. Striking a balance: both in person, the good old way, and through Zoom, the good new way.
Despite the pandemic and other shut borders odds, the Symi Symposium, annually organized by the Andreas Papandreou Foundation, could this year again gather George Papandreou’s political and academic, influencers, friends. Since 2017, The Bridge Tank is being part of what this year was perhaps the first “Hybrid Forum”: a fine combination of core in-house, closed doors debates with tailored amount of Zoom exchanges with leaders such as f. Secretary Madeleine Albright, NATO’s Dy SG Geona, f. Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd or Colette Avital former Presidential candidate in Israel.
Madeleine Albright from DC, George Papandreou from Symi Symposium and Colette Avital from Israel
Symi Symposium conversations take place under the aegis of the “Chatham House” rules; not disclosing the positions of various speakers, topics revolved around pressing issues: with Madeleine Albright and later with Richard Parker from Harvard on the growing understanding that racism in America has something “systemic”, and how generally speaking the US situation relates to the agony of an age when Americans were 80% rooted in American-European white population, now evolving towards a 4-5 streams of populations origins trying to organise a domestic polity; the US now stand at a point where they have to internally negotiate new political alliances: this might possibly be one root of America giving the impression it is now in a mess.
As Greece now chairs the Council of Europe, this edition was additionally a week long opportunity to discuss current issues with Frank Schwabe, Chairman of the Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, or Francesca Abrogast, Executive Secretary of the Group.
Frank Schwabe’s speech following George Papandreou’s welcomeFrancesca Abrogast, here with Denis MacShanne, who was Tony Blair’s Minister for Europe
We also had the usual Symi Symposium conversations with leaders in the Balkans or struggling progressives of different parts of the world, such as Isadora Zubillaga from Venezuela, the Special Representative in Paris of Juan Guaido. Conversations with leaders who have just emerged out of democratic struggles (North Macedonia), or who are now into these (Venezuela) attested that “Democracy is the longest meeting”. In this line, Joel Ruet from the Bridge Tank advocated for a continued discussion with the weavers within all systems.
Isadora Zubillaga, vice foreign Affairs Minister in Guaido’s “Government in charge” from Venezuela, Radmilla Shekerinska, Minister for Defense, North Macedonia, George Papandreou, former Prime Minister of Greece and President of the Socialist International, and Joel Ruet, President, The Bridge Tank.
During the same session, a special conversation with Mircea Geoana gave us the sense that NATO’s Secretariat is quite active at foresight on the risks and threats of the future.
We also discussed the pandemic development through the lens of lifelong learning systems, over three time horizons: so far the reaction against the Covid was a “Defense”, we’ll now need to “Exit” this temporary space and actively prepare to engaging into transformation, e.g. “Enlarging” humanness of systems. On all issues with no boundaries, a care Leadership has to emerge through the right bundle of community, participative democracy, technology, and an Education designed for world and life, not just for jobs. Economics too need to be mobilized: in the eve of automation, how shall robots contribute into revenue, and revenue support a “positive idleness”, that is not a pure ensure but contribution to the society.
It is all the more important to continue this work and not to be blinded by strategic competition, frictions and gaps, but rather recognizing at areas of strategic collaborations: Covid, climate, finance cooperation. The Symposium closed with ground for optimism, noting that in the long course of Energy history, for instance, the world sees the first policy driven energy transformation. It si in a great way also industry-driven and transition has to be Just with a real energy-society integration by policy; this may serves as a case study for a larger renewed Social contract.
Last but not least, Symi was also the occasion to continue exchanging ideas beyond the sessions.
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium and now Member of Constitutional Court Erick Derycke, Mrs Dericke, and Joel Ruet
Joel Ruet, Chairman The Bridge Tank
NB: This post is only a personal reflexion on the event and discussions and does not bind in anyway the organizers nor any participant. Quotes are not necessarily attributable to any of the participants, nor to the persons mentioned in this post, but are rather reformulations of some formulas that may have circulated in the forum at some point.
EU’s Policy making seldom shows such a great coordination across the Union, member states, regions, across different policies and between policy makers and the industry. The 8th of July of 2020 was a landmark announcement that could face up Asian leadership ambitions. This demonstrates the cohesive strength of the European construction, the next frontier being of course an energy transition that is just, inclusive, and participative in process.
By Joël Ruet & Antoine Goutaland – On 8th July 2020, the European Commission unveiled a 3-phases plan for Hydrogen. This is a landmark announcement for European industry with a common industrial project that could face up Asian leadership ambitions. The 3 phases consist in: (1) Enabling framework conditions for large 100 MW-range electrolyzers, and wind and solar plants dedicated to GW- scale RE H2 production before 2030, (2) Negotiations for ETS phase 4 to target renewable H2 becoming cost-competitive, to fossil fuel sector, (3) Renewable electricity production needs to massively increase as about a quarter of renewable electricity might be used for renewable hydrogen production by 2050.
