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The geopolitical implications of renewable energy involve changes beyond the immediate impact on energy and commodity streams. Energy policies of individual countries affect each other via different economic and political channels. This paper studies the role of renewable energy in EU-China relations, two leading powers in the field of renewable energy. Both polities have recently increased their individual ambitions towards decarbonisation of their domestic energy systems, and renewables play an increasingly important role in shaping their bilateral dealings. We therefore ask what influence renewable energy has on the relationship between both sides. To capture the effect, we employ the concept of policy interdependence in four areas related to renewable energy namely climate, energy, industry, and trade and investment policy. While these are often seen as separate fields, they are all related to renewable energy. Findings indicate that renewable energy has the potential to be a determinant of bilateral relations. Renewable energy contributed to greater alignment between the EU and China in the past, while increasing recourse to policy choices based on national priorities today creates obstacles to further cooperation. However, the patterns of policy interdependence identified in this study also suggest potential for renewed cooperation in the field of energy policy, depending on the capability of policymakers to see beyond the current structure of the bilateral relationship. ; publishedVersion

In the construction of nanotwinned (NT) copper, inherent kink-like steps are formed on growth twin boundaries (TBs). Such imperfections in TBs play a crucial role in the yielding mechanism and plastic deformation of NT copper. Here, we used the molecular dynamic (MD) method to examine the influence of kink-step characteristics in depth, including kink density and kink-step height, on mechanical behavior of copper nanowire (NW) in uniaxial tension. The results showed that the kink-step, a stress-concentrated region, is preferential in nucleating and emitting stress-induced partial dislocations. Mixed dislocation of hard mode I and II and hard mode II dislocation were nucleated from kink-step and surface atoms, respectively. Kink-step height and kink density substantially affected the yielding mechanism and plastic behavior, with the yielding stress functional-related to kink-step height. However, intense kink density (1 kink per 4.4 nm) encourages dislocation nucleation at kink-steps without any significant decline in tensile stress. Defective nanowires with low kink-step height or high kink density offered minimal resistance to kink migration, which has been identified as one of the primary mechanisms of plastic deformation. Defective NWs with refined TB spacing were also studied. A strain-hardening effect due to the refined TB spacing and dislocation pinning was observed for defective NWs. This study has implications for designing NT copper to obtain optimum mechanical performance. ; This research was undertaken with the assistance of resources from the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI), which is supported by the Australian Government. This work was supported by the Australian Research Council under Grant Nos. LP130101001.