LONDON — The Trump administration arrived in the U.K. this week with a simple message: China is a malign actor, benefitting from misguided climate policies, and the world is better off copying America’s newfound embrace of fossil fuels.
It was met with a shrug.
The gathering of 60 nations, together in London to debate the future of energy security, had a few warm words for their U.S. guests. “Fossil fuel will be part of our energy mix for decades to come,” U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer acknowledged. The EU had “not forgotten how the United States immediately stepped in with energy when we needed it during the energy crisis,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen added.
But the gathered ministers were largely looking beyond fossil fuels. European politicians, especially, spent the summit saying their future did not involve swapping Russian gas for American imports, but was led primarily by clean energy.
