Europe’s North Sea countries commit to nearly 90 GW of joint offshore projects by 2030, strengthening cooperation on offshore wind energy and energy security.
Offshore wind energy cooperation in the North Sea gains momentum
European leaders met in Hamburg on Monday, January 26, for the North Sea Summit, a high level meeting focused on strengthening cooperation on offshore wind energy and hydrogen in the North Sea. Countries across the region committed to accelerating joint projects, pledging to deliver nearly 90 gigawatts of offshore renewable capacity by 2030 and 360 gigawatts by 2050.
The summit set out concrete actions and timelines to reduce investment risks, interconnect cross border power grids and reinforce the energy system against physical, cyber or hybrid threats. The goal is to make the region structurally less dependent on fossil fuel imports.
Hamburg’s meeting reaffirmed the commitment of Western and Northern European governments to offshore wind energy as a cornerstone of regional energy security. Participating countries agreed to closely coordinate planning, cost sharing and project financing, while also focusing on job creation across the offshore wind value chain.
The North Sea Summit in Hamburg
This year’s North Sea Summit was hosted for the first time by the German federal government, with the aim of boosting cross border cooperation and, in particular, accelerating offshore wind energy deployment. The inaugural summit took place in Denmark in 2022, at the height of Europe’s energy crisis.
The 2026 edition brought together Ireland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany and Denmark, alongside Norway, Iceland and the United Kingdom, with representatives from the European Commission and NATO also in attendance.
Trump challenged on wind power after Davos remarks
Beyond energy policy, the summit also served as a show of European unity in response to renewed tensions with the United States under Donald Trump, including his recent threats toward NATO allies over Greenland.
Only days earlier, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump once again mocked clean energy, calling wind turbines “for losers.” He also claimed that China produces nearly all wind turbines, while saying he had not been able to find a single wind farm in the country.
Those remarks were publicly contradicted by Guo Jiakun, spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who stated that China’s efforts to address climate change and expand renewable energy are evident to the world.
China is home to one of the world’s largest wind power complexes, located in Gansu province, with a capacity of 10 gigawatts and visible from space. According to Global Energy Monitor, China installed more than 4.4 gigawatts of new offshore wind capacity in the first half of 2025 alone, matching the total added in all of the previous year. A report by the think tank Ember also found that China accounted for 40 percent of global wind power generation in 2024.
Offshore wind energy as a pillar of European energy security
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has described his ambition to turn the North Sea into “the world’s largest clean energy reserve.”
“Domestically produced clean energy,” said UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen in comments to Politico, “offers an alternative to the EU’s growing dependence on imported liquefied natural gas, much of which now comes from the United States.”
“Relying so heavily on fossil fuels, whether from Russia or any other country, cannot guarantee the energy security and prosperity we need. It leaves us dangerously exposed to international market volatility and pressure from external actors,” they added.
Promoting clean energy, Miliband said, is about defending national interests. It allows the United Kingdom to step off the fossil fuel roller coaster and secure long term energy sovereignty and abundance.
Europe’s growing commitment to offshore wind in the North Sea
In 2023, North Sea countries agreed on a target of 300 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2050. That goal has now been raised to 360 gigawatts. Three years ago, the strategy was framed as a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Europe’s reliance on Russian gas. This time, the same countries are also signaling a desire to reduce dependence on the United States.
Discussions in Hamburg focused on investment frameworks needed to deliver cross border offshore wind projects and on strengthening cooperation in energy infrastructure development. These efforts align with the EU’s new “Energy Highways” initiative, part of the European grids package, which identifies eight strategic infrastructure corridors.
Improving interconnectivity is seen as a prerequisite for achieving energy independence. The summit also addressed how to protect critical infrastructure and boost the resilience of Europe’s energy system in an increasingly unstable global environment.
The risk of growing EU dependence on US energy
Excessive reliance on any single source of supply risks repeating past mistakes. The United States is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, and since the EU began cutting imports of Russian gas, LNG imports from the US have quadrupled, according to data from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
Precisely in an effort to find alternatives to Russian supplies, Rome and Washington committed in September to expanding energy ties, including increased LNG exports from the United States.
US LNG imports into the EU rose from 21 billion cubic meters in 2021 to around 81 billion cubic meters in 2025, with 13 EU countries importing US LNG last year. Analysts warn that growing dependence on American LNG could create a new and potentially risky form of energy reliance, undermining the EU’s commitments to manage gas demand.
If the EU were to follow through on all supply agreements signed with the US, by 2030 the bloc could source 75 to 80 percent of its LNG imports from the United States, up from 57 percent in 2025. Heavy reliance on US LNG, the most expensive option for European buyers, runs counter to the goals of the REPowerEU plan, which aims to safeguard EU energy security through diversification and demand reduction.
