The Future of Global Energy Cooperation: Sustainable Energy Partnerships

Introduction

I want to start by saying thank you to President Boric for all you did for climate action, just energy transition and democracy in Chile. I had the honor to work with your Environment Minister Maisa Rojas to facilitate the negotiations on loss and damage and in the coalition to achieve the Dubai outcome to transition away from fossil fuels and triple renewables. And I can say that without Chile inside and outside the negotiations, we would not have gotten there. So great you are here. We need your voice in Berlin.

And thank you to the Boell Foundation and Humboldt University for bringing us together at this critical moment to think together, discuss, debate and feel together to find ways forward to act.

As we all know, we are meeting at a moment of rupture. A kind of rupture that demands thatwe look at the world as it actually is, not as we might wish it to be. This can be painful but it is necessary in order to step into this rupture and steer it into a sustainable just future. The Strait of Hormuz - is effectively closed. The IEA’s Executive Director Fatih Birol has called this supply disruption the “greatest global energy security challenge in history.” Countries are rationing energy, food security is a serious issue, costs are skyrocketing. People are hurting. The war in Iran has done what decades of warnings failed to do: it has exposed the absolute fragility of our fossil-fuel-dependent world.

This is what fossil fuel dependency looks like in 2026. Not an abstract risk. Not a future scenario. This - right now, this week - is the cost of a global economy still chained to a single, politically volatile, geographically concentrated source of energy. 

At the same moment that the world is relearning this painful lesson, something else is happening. Something that ten years ago would have been dismissed as utopian and that today is simply fact. Last year, global renewable energy capacity grew by nearly 700 gigawatts - a new record. In 2025, wind and solar generated more electricity in Europe than fossil fuels for the first time in recorded history. One in every five new cars sold globally last year was electric. In China, that share was nearly one in two. The IEA projects that this year, more than one in four cars sold worldwide will be electric.

And in parallel, the climate crisis rages on. It may not be the topic in the media these days, but that does not mean it is not happening - impacts intensify and accelerate around the world, but particularly making the lives of vulnerable people even harder and nature ever more fragile. The world is splitting. Not between North and South, or East and West - but between a model based on scarcity, volatility, and geopolitical leverage, and a model based on abundance, distributed production, carbon neutrality and sovereign energy security. Our task today - this forum’s task - is to dive in deep and figure out together how to chart the sustainable model forward together.

The Illusion of Fossil Dominance: The US Strategy

But to do so, we must be completely clear-eyed about the forces working to lock us even longer into this broken past. The Trump administration has weaponized this crisis to advance its doctrine of "American energy dominance." The United States is doubling down on fossil fuels, using its massive political and economic leverage to force a vulnerable world to buy American oil and gas, shut down wind turbines, and profit a few. 

This is not a marginal policy shift, nor just a domestic policy shift. It is a deliberate attempt to use American market and political power and financial influence to solidify the global energy order in the long-term in the direction of fossil fuel primacy along with a coordinated, global assault on multilateralism, the rule of law, human rights, feminism, renewable energy and climate action. The goal is explicit: a fragmented world where energy is a tool of bilateral coercion, and where the rules-based international order is replaced by raw transactional power. And, I must add, a world that is dominated by a certain kind of masculine identity that should not go unspoken.

The connection between energy dominance and a specific form of masculinity lies in a shared logic of control, where power is defined by the ability to dominate rivals rather than cooperate with equals. This worldview views global affairs as a zero-sum competition, making centralized and extractive energy sources particularly attractive to those who equate strength with hierarchy. Opposition to climate action often stems from the same ideological "well" as resistance to gender equality: a fundamental rejection of shared governance and international solidarity.

Trump can delay the shift in the United States. He cannot reverse it globally.

Fossil infrastructures require high-level, centralized management that reinforces this top-down power dynamic. Conflict over resource-rich territories or transit chokepoints - like the Strait of Hormuz - serves as the coercive "arm" of this energy model. This environment of risk and "militarized securitization" appeals to a mindset that prioritizes enforcing hierarchies over managing interdependence.

But I am here today to tell you that this bid for fossil dominance is an expensive illusion. It is a rewhipped version of a 1970s playbook that cannot withstand the economic, technological and climate realities of 2026. While the US tries to chain the world to the volatile booms and busts of the past, the tectonic plates of the global economy are shifting. Trump can delay the shift in the United States. He cannot reverse it globally.

But the speed and scale of the change is not a given. And this matters immensely, as you all know, for climate justice.

The Convergence of Interests: The Clean Industrial Revolution

The true story of 2026 is not American dominance, but the profound emerging global convergence of energy security, economic development, and climate action. Outside of Washington, many countries around the world are aligning around a low-carbon, prosperous, and fair future - not out of ideology, but national interest. Not fast enough, but aligning. The ongoing crisis in the Strait of Hormuz has only sharpened this reality, exposing the deep vulnerabilities of our reliance on centralized, extractive energy systems.

Rather than begging for more oil, many nations are actively seeking to break free from these negative dependencies. As was discussed last night, we are in the midst of an unprecedented "electrotech revolution," a distributed, modular energy system that is fundamentally harder to weaponize, blockade, or use as an instrument of geopolitical coercion. Driven by plunging technology costs, this shift is transforming how nations secure their futur - not by retreating into isolation, but by anchoring their domestic energy security in decentralized, affordable solutions.

This transformation is visible in rapid market shifts across the globe, where countries are using clean technology to build resilience against global shocks. In 2025, global renewable additions surpassed a staggering 670 gigawatts, with Asia driving 74 percent of that capacity, while regions across Africa and the Middle East recorded historic growth. From Pakistan - where a massive, people-led solar revolution has seen panel prices fall dramatically - to accelerated clean energy strategies in India, Brazil, and South Africa, the momentum is structural and bottom-up. These countries are proving that moving away from volatile, fossil-rich transit chokepoints is the fastest way to shield their economies from external disruption.

This is not just about climate. It is about Europe’s economic future, its security, and its role in the world.

Ultimately, these dynamics demonstrate that true energy security is no longer about dominating finite resources or enforcing hierarchies of extraction. The fossil fuel shocks of today are accelerating a permanent turn toward domestic, distributed clean power, but this is a journey no country can complete alone. This powerful convergence of economic, security, and climate interests offers a rare and profound opportunity to build a new model of international cooperation, not just in words but in deeds, in action. By working together as like-minded partners to secure supply chains, share technology, and govern our shared global interdependence, we can replace outdated, vulnerable energy dependencies with sustainable, cooperative networks built on mutual accountability and shared governance.

But - efforts are not yet connected enough nor robust enough to ensure that the just transition continues at the required speed and scale required.

Europe’s Choice: Security Through Acceleration and Partnership

This brings us to Europe. We face an existential test. Our domestic industries are under threat, our economic security is on the line, our continent is warming faster than any other and people are nervous and worried. Europe’s response cannot be to stay in the claws of energy dominance and weaken climate standards to import LNG from the United States. Our national economic and climate security interests demand that we not only stay the course but accelerate our economic development to a clean economy.

Domestically, that means a number of things:

1. Putting in place the laws and policies so that the 90 percent by 2040 target of the EU is met in a socially just, effective manner. This means not turning back to fossil gas, but doubling down on the just energy transition including in the housing sector.
2. Executing the European Commission's newly reinforced electrification goals. President von der Leyen recently announced a needed push to break decades of stagnation and lift Europe's electrification rate from its historical 23 percent to at least 32 percent by 2030 - a target that will require Europe to double past rates of renewable deployment. Wind and solar already produce more electricity in Europe than fossil fuels. The direction is right. The pace must accelerate.

But Europe’s challenge is not only domestic. It is also deeply international.

We need a pivot in how Europe engages with emerging and developing economies. The old paradigm of colonial resource extraction - where the Global South provides the raw materials and Europe captures the value - is dead. We now live in a BRICS world, whether Europe likes it or not. Europe must thus forge a new paradigm architecture of international cooperation with partners.

If we want to build a secure, stable global green economy, we must co-create a new model based on explicit principles:

• Local Value Creation: Processing and manufacturing must happen within the partner countries.
• Job Generation: Clean energy infrastructure must create durable, high-skilled local employment.
• Co-Ownership of Supply Chains: Building mutual economic resilience rather than unilateral dependencies.

Trust is low. So if Europe wants to be effective in this moment, it must act itself with greater coherence and urgency and courage. It needs:

• A genuine European climate foreign policy - aligning climate, energy, trade, and industrial strategies across the Commission and External Action Services.
• Stronger coordination between EU institutions and member states, in capitals around the world so Europe can speak with one voice and not require partners to have the same conversation many times.
• Better alignment of development finance around country-led plans and platforms.
• It means working with European industry in a new way - not protecting incumbent sectors from competition, but identifying where European companies can genuinely create value in partner countries, and ensuring that value creation is genuinely shared with those countries through local manufacturing, local employment, and local capacity building while maintaining jobs in Europe.
• And let me be clear: we cannot talk about partnership while ignoring the crushing debt crisis facing developing countries. True cooperation requires Europe to champion structural debt relief and innovative financing mechanisms, freeing up the fiscal space our partners need to invest in their own resilience and green transitions. Especially during this crisis moment.

This is not just about climate. It is about Europe’s economic future, its security, and its role in the world.

I believe that a key motor in this battle against energy dominance towards a sustainable electrotech revolution is the relationship between the EU and China. I was in Beijing last week and experienced both the speed at which change is happening in China and reconfirmed that the EU and China must dialogue and negotiate to find solutions to a number of issues.

The China Reality: Scale, Tensions, and Pragmatic Engagement

Indeed, we cannot talk about the global green economy without confronting the country moving at lightning speed: China.

China’s rise to technological leadership in clean technologies happened first slowly, then suddenly. By seizing a massive window of opportunity, Chinese companies built colossal production capacities. They didn’t just lower costs for the world; they fundamentally transformed global manufacturing. Today, China dominates the production, processing, and refining of the critical materials and rare earth elements that drive the global EV and renewable markets. Europe cannot afford not to have a China strategy. A real one. Not a collection of national positions that happen to share a flag.

Let’s be honest: the relationship between the European Union and Beijing is fraught with immense tension. We have deep, systemic disagreements on market access, critical minerals, human rights, and China’s stance on Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine. These are serious issues that cannot be swept under the carpet.

However, it is also in Europe’s fundamental national interest to engage with China. For without rapid decarbonization in China, global emission reductions will fail, and the climate impacts on Europe and vulnerable nations will be catastrophic. We must find a unified European approach that moves past our current fragmented, capital-by-capital diplomacy. We need a single, coherent long-term China strategy.

That unified strategy must clearly map out four categories:

1. Strategic Autonomy: Identify the critical economic sectors that must be produced inside Europe, supported by policy fully aligned with the Paris Agreement.
2. Global Competition: Define the clean technology areas where Europe intends to invest heavily and compete fiercely on the global stage.
3. Strategic Interdependence: Recognize the sectors where China holds an insurmountable manufacturing lead, and actively pursue Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and joint ventures that bring Chinese technology to Europe under strict European standards, establishing rules for engagement that ensure fair competition and high standards.
4. Targeted Cooperation: Maintain open, structured dialogues on climate action, energy security, and macroeconomic stability.

On energy security, let us be precise: importing a Chinese solar panel does not create the same dangerous, day-to-day vulnerability as importing Russian gas or Qatari LNG. A solar panel on a roof keeps generating power even if supply chains snap. You cannot turn off the sun. But Europe still requires structural confidence that China will remain a dependable supplier while we derisk and diversify our partnerships globally.

The upcoming EU-China High-Level Environment and Climate Dialogue in June led by Vice-President Ribera and the Chinese Vice-Premier is a critical moment. Setting up structured working groups and dialogue is essential to overcome misunderstandings, identify areas of potential cooperation and create forums to solve the outstanding issues. Yes, the EU-China relationship is essential to move the electro-tech economy forward. But of course, it is only one piece of the puzzle. It is not only about whether Europe can find a new paradigm of partnership but also whether China can do so.

In Beijing last week I had many discussions about whether China is ready to be a more generous partner with more countries that builds local industrial capacity, or merely wants to remain the world's sole factory? In places like Pakistan, cheap Chinese solar imports have sparked a massive, decentralized solar boom, bringing affordable electricity to millions.

One question that I have heard from people across Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America are asking - is not “will China sell us clean energy?” They know the answer is yes. The question is “will China help us build clean energy?” Will China support local manufacturing, local supply chains, local jobs? I heard this from African ambassadors last week in Beijing.

Of course China has extensive South-South initiatives. And in countries like Brazil, it is sharing and creating local value. The question is whether China’s role in the global South can include greater technology transfer, local manufacturing support, and a genuine commitment to building industrial capacity in partner countries. Create an active new model.

So we have spoken about the importance of European national and bilateral relationships, the importance of China and how it engages and we have heard about the importance of emerging and developing economies in their pursuit of national interests. But even if these were pursued, I do not believe it would be enough to counteract the fossil energy dominance model that has such tremendous economic and political power behind it.

Broader and deeper alliances amongst larger groups of countries are needed

And we do see one emerging. Just weeks ago, at the Santa Marta Conference co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands, 57 countries, representing roughly one-third of the world’s economy and accounting for about 30 percent of global energy demand and 20 percent of global energy supply, came together to confront not just whether to transition, but how to transition away from fossil fuels and they met in a new format and discussed frankly, practically, and with a commitment to action.

I want to be precise about what Santa Marta represents. It is not a replacement for the Paris Agreement. It is not even a formal negotiating body. It is something more agile and very needed: a coalition of willing governments that are serious about implementation, that are sharing practical tools for managing the economic transition away from fossil fuel dependence, and that are building the political solidarity to sustain that commitment over time. A coalition of the doing.

This is the model we need more of. Not grand declarations that dissolve upon return to national capitals, but communities of practice - governments learning from each other how to actually manage the politics of energy transition, how to redesign fiscal systems, how to handle the social costs, how to build the institutions.

The world is fragmenting. That is real. But it does not have to fragment into a race to the bottom among competing bilateral deals and competing great power spheres. It can reshape itself productively - into coalitions of the willing that share standards, shared finance models, share technical knowledge, and that anchor their cooperation in the Paris Agreement.

Importantly, this momentum is building from and feeding directly into the initiative of the Brazilian COP30 President on Roadmaps to transition away from fossil fuels to implement Paris Agreement decisions. An alliance is emerging - stretching from the North Sea to the Andes - committed to a managed, just, and orderly phase-out of oil, gas, and coal. Yes, it is messy, but it cannot be overlooked and rather needs full attention.

Electrification: The Organizing Principle

Let me now come to what I believe is a powerful organizing concept that is the obvious other side of the coin of the phase out agenda: green electrification. We all know that in order to transition away one must both build sustainable energy access to those that do not have it and transition to renewable energy.

Green electrification - the systematic replacement of fossil fuel combustion with electricity generated from renewable sources - is not just an energy policy. It is a geopolitical strategy. It is the most direct and scalable response to the energy dominance model.

Every barrel of oil displaced by an electric vehicle is a barrel that cannot be weaponized. Every household that heats with a heat pump rather than gas heating is a household that has escaped from imported energy dependency. Every factory that runs on solar or wind power rather than diesel is a factory whose costs are insulated from geopolitical shocks. And distributed and modular energy systems are harder to blockade or weaponize, offering a path away from the coercive logic of "fossil patriarchy".

Green electrification [...] is not just an energy policy. It is a geopolitical strategy.

China’s electrification is already extraordinary. The EU has committed to a 32 percent share of electricity in final energy consumption by 2030. But electrification must not remain the privilege of the wealthier countries. The same logic that drove Pakistan’s solar revolution - that cheap, distributed, locally-generated electricity is economically superior to expensive, imported, centrally-controlled fossil fuel - applies everywhere.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, where hundreds of millions still lack reliable electricity access, distributed solar and storage is the most economically rational path forward. In Southeast Asia, in Central America, in the Sahel - the populations that have historically been priced out of the energy transition are now the populations with the most to gain from it. Green electrification, then, is the practical expression of the convergence of interests I described earlier. It is the arena where the interests of industry actors, global South development, climate stability, and energy security and prosperity for all, align.

Our task is to build the partnerships, standards, financing instruments, and supply chains that make green electrification one of the organizing principles of international cooperation over the next decade.

An Electrification Alliance! Watch this space.

Paris: Protect It, Improve It, Use It

The ultimate anchor for all of this work remains the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Over the last ten years, the Paris framework, combined with technology development and market forces, has quietly driven the astonishing market shifts we see today. It provided the long-term certainty that made clean energy a trillion-dollar asset class. This is one reason why the Trump Administration is working to destroy it and other multilateral agreements.

The Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC does not signal the death of the regime; it makes our defensive investment in it more urgent than ever. The Paris Agreement was never designed to solve everything on its own, but it provides the essential architecture of ambition cycles, transparency, and accountability.

Crucially, Paris offers a platform for global climate diplomacy at a time when forums like the G20 or G7 are gridlocked by U.S. obstruction.

We must protect, improve and use the Paris Agreement. It is the place where all countries - especially the most vulnerable - have a seat at the table and where heads of state have to explain their climate plans to the world.

When Paris was negotiated, we deliberately built in mechanisms that allowed groups of forward-leaning countries to step out ahead and cooperate as part of achieving the goals of Paris and implementing it. It is time to put those tools into practice. We must ensure linkage of plurilateral initiatives and sectoral coalitions to the umbrella of the Paris Agreement to protect and strengthen its core architecture to avoid fragmentation. A fragmented set of initiatives and ‘deals’ is much weaker than an aligned set of agreements working towards achieving the Paris goals.

Paris must be protected actively, not passively. And it must be used - not just as a reporting mechanism, but as a platform for the coalitions and cooperation frameworks.

Conclusion: The Only Path Forward

My friends, the choice before us is stark. We can submit to a fractured world defined by the volatile, coercive model of fossil dominance. Or we can build a resilient, rules-based alternative rooted in the clean industrial revolution. A future that electrifies our economies, builds genuine local prosperity, secures our climate, and leaves no one behind is not a utopian dream. It is an act of clear-eyed, hard-headed geopolitical survival.

Let us engage here in Berlin with the determination to build that alternative. Let us protect the international architecture we have painstakingly created, accelerate our domestic transitions, and co-create a model of cooperation based on mutual respect, shared prosperity, and a common future.

Thank you very much.

This speech was held by Jennifer Morgan at the Berlin Forum on Global Cooperation 2026.