Europe has spent years demonising fossil resources while confidently declaring that they can simply be replaced by renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and biomass. In doing so, the European Union may be accomplishing something remarkable: shooting itself squarely in the foot.
Take biomass. Once presented as the shining hero of the energy transition, biomass power plants are increasingly criticised for their environmental footprint. In may cases, they may even perform worse than coal plants when the full lifecycle of emissions and resource use is considered.
So why does the European Commission remain so dogmatic about “green” energy?
The answer may be less about saving the planet and more about saving certain business models.
A powerful ecosystem of investors, lobbyists, and policymakers has poured enormous sums into the decarbonisation narrative. Entire industries have formed around carbon accounting, green certification, and emissions markets such as the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS). Where there is regulation, there is opportunity — and where there is opportunity, there is money.
A great deal of taxpayer funding also flows into ambitious-sounding EU innovation projects under programs like Horizon. Critics argue that many of these initiatives generate more paperwork and conferences than real technological breakthroughs.
From that perspective, the EU’s decarbonisation framework can start to look less like a coherent energy strategy and more like a complex financial ecosystem — one that, detractors say, sometimes resembles a self-sustaining bubble.
Meanwhile, countries like China appear to have mastered the art of navigating this landscape, producing vast quantities of the very technologies Europe champions while continuing to rely heavily on traditional energy sources at home.
Whether Europe’s strategy ultimately proves visionary or naïve remains to be seen. For now, however, the debate over green energy in Europe is far from settled.
My Advice to China — and to Mr. Xi Jinping
If I were offering friendly advice to Xi Jinping, it would be simple.
Keep building coal plants. Keep building fossil fuel infrastructure. Keep building nuclear power stations. In other words: maintain a balanced and resilient energy mix — something the European Union seems to have forgotten in its rush toward ideological purity.
Of course, do it intelligently. Build those plants with modern technologies that reduce pollution and environmental impact as much as possible. Invest in efficiency. Innovate. Improve. That is what serious industrial policy looks like.
And whatever you do, don’t criticise Europe’s enthusiasm for wind turbines and solar panels. After all, much of the hardware behind those technologies happens to be manufactured in China. As long as Europe remains happily lost in its solar-and-wind wonderland, Chinese factories will continue to enjoy healthy export orders.
So by all means — smile politely, nod approvingly, and let Brussels continue digging its own policy trench.
But every prudent strategist also builds an insurance policy. And this is where biomass comes in.
If I were advising Beijing, I would quietly deploy a small army of curious observers — perhaps not famous influencers, but the sharp, street-smart kind who know how to ask questions in the right corridors. Send them to Brussels. Let them attend conferences, workshops, and panels about Europe’s grand biomass ambitions.
Their mission would be simple: gather information, study the system, and publicly praise the European Commission as the world’s undisputed leader in biomass energy. Express admiration. Show interest. Suggest that China is eager to learn from the European model.
The goal would be to inflate the narrative that Europe is the global authority on biomass — the gold standard everyone should follow.
And then, one day, if that carefully inflated bubble ever bursts, the echo would travel far beyond Brussels.
At that point, the story practically writes itself: Europe, the self-proclaimed pioneer, turns out to have led the world down a questionable path. The prophets of biomass suddenly look less like visionaries and more like overly confident experimenters.
Meanwhile, China could politely shrug and say it merely tried to learn from the experts.