EU Climate Chief Warns China Dependence Raises Green Transition Costs

EU Climate Action Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra warned on 27 August that the European Union’s reliance on Chinese clean‑energy suppliers will make the bloc’s green transition more expensive, urging Brussels to reduce dependence now rather than wait for a decade. Hoekstra said the EU must confront its “strategic vulnerability” if it wants to meet its 2050 climate neutrality goal without creating a new single point of failure.

The Dutch commissioner said the EU should have addressed its dependence on China “five to ten years ago,” noting that postponing action would increase disruption and costs. “It will be much cheaper and more advantageous to act now than to wishy‑wash and wait another five to ten years,” he said. He added that the bloc’s current reliance on Chinese manufacturers for electric‑vehicle batteries, solar panels, wind turbines and energy storage could replace one strategic dependency with another, echoing Europe’s past reliance on Russian gas.

China dominates key parts of Europe’s battery supply chain. Wood Mackenzie data show Chinese firms supply more than 80 % of the EU’s residential battery‑energy‑storage market and nearly 88 % of lithium‑ion battery imports. The EU’s dependence on China for critical materials is deep‑rooted, and the rapid expansion of wind and solar power is outpacing storage development, according to EU energy ministers who discussed the issue under the Cyprus EU Presidency.

The broader EU‑China trade relationship is under pressure. In 2025 the EU’s trade deficit with China hit a record €1 billion a day, prompting European leaders to call for a rebalancing of what they describe as “unsustainable” economic relations. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said on 27 August that dialogue with China must produce results and that, if it does not, the EU must use its full range of instruments. Brussels has already taken measures to protect the European market, targeting Chinese companies over alleged illegal products, state subsidies and foreign investment, while Beijing has threatened retaliation.

Hoekstra cited the solar industry as an example of the risks of losing domestic production to heavily subsidised Chinese imports. He went further, raising concerns about alleged Chinese interference and security risks involving critical infrastructure in Europe. “Kill switches are being included in windmills. Espionage happens at a very high degree on European soil. Intellectual property theft in our most advanced companies happens on a weekly basis,” he said. The commissioner stressed that no government or the EU can simply allow such risks.

The comments come as Brussels seeks tangible progress in its economic relationship with Beijing. Technical talks between the EU and China are expected to advance in October, with EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič scheduled to travel to China. For Hoekstra, the goal is not to end trade with China but to ensure that Europe is no longer vulnerable to a single external supplier for technologies critical to its energy transition.

The challenge, he said, is to build European capacity now, even if doing so comes with higher short‑term costs. The EU must balance the urgency of its climate commitments with the need for supply‑chain resilience, a task that will test the bloc’s economic and political will as it navigates a complex trade relationship with the world’s second‑largest economy.

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