The EU is holding back on signing a joint declaration on climate action with China at a leaders’ summit this month, adding to tensions between the two sides over trade and Russia’s war on Ukraine.

EU officials said Beijing had made multiple requests for a declaration on their mutual climate commitment following a mid-July summit between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Chinese President Xi Jinping to mark 50 years of diplomatic relations.

But Brussels had refused to agree on a communiqué unless China pledged greater efforts to cut its greenhouse gas emissions. “I understand and recognise the Chinese push for a declaration [by] the presidents for diplomatic value but that in itself for the [EU] is not enough,” EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told the Financial Times.