Green energy success is helping Beijing push back against western political pressure. Xuyang Dong, a China energy policy analyst at Climate Energy Finance, an Australian think-tank, argues that China’s renewable electricity generation, backed by huge investment in the power grid and energy storage, means coal will increasingly only be used as an emergency back-up before, “inevitably”, being phased out. Read more

[On Caixin] China has been a world leader in investing in cleantech outside its border, too. Between January 2023 and September this year, Chinese state-owned and private companies committed more than $100 billion in foreign direct investment in relevant industries, according to the CEF. The Australia-based think tank analyzed projects that were proposed, under construction, or completed during the period in a report it released on Oct. 2. “It is a significant number considering that there are no other countries who have invested so heavily into cleantech across the world like China has,” said Dong Xuyang, an analyst of China’s energy policies at CEF. Read more

“China leads the world in clean tech – including solar, wind, batteries and new energy vehicles – with its investments more than double those of the US or the EU,” the Australian non-profit organisation Climate Energy Finance said in a report on October 2. Dong Xuyang, a China energy policy analyst with Climate Energy Finance and one of the report’s authors, said this year there has been a “material step up” of Chinese investments in Australian renewable energy projects. Dong said China provides cost-competitive clean tech to the global market, adding “trade barriers” from the US and EU “risk raising costs for domestic consumers and industries engaged in the energy transition”. Read more

The report, “Green capital tsunami: China’s >$100 billion outbound clean-tech investment since 2023 turbocharges global energy transition”, released on Oct 2 by the independent think tank Climate Energy Finance, or CEF, said Chinese firms have committed more than$100 billion in outbound foreign direct investment since 2023. Xuyang Dong, CEF’s China energy policy analyst and co-author of the report, said China leads the world in clean energy. “It is actively injecting more and more zero-emissions energy into its national power system even as it progressively shifts to electrifying everything and upgrading its energy policy to accelerate the energy transition progress,” she told China Daily. “China is increasingly the world leader in almost all these zero-emissions industries of the future, and that opens up opportunities to invest globally into clean energy,” she said. Dong said the problem for Australia is a “lack of effective communication and trust” between the two countries. Read more

The International Energy Agency’s Renewables 2024 report has forecast Australia will add 53 GW of renewable capacity between 2024-2030, with a nearly 65% share being from a mix of utility, rooftop and green hydogen production solar. Independent think tank Climate Energy Finance Director Tim Buckley said the IEA now models a continued increase in global renewables deployments to 940 GW annually by 2030, a 70% increase in the record of 2023. “This shows a global ‘bending of the curve’, very overdue in light of the climate science, but a deployment rate considered impossible only a few years ago,” Read more

Climate Energy Finance (CEF) has highlighted the billion-dollar opportunity in China’s outbound “green capital tsunami”. A new report from the think tank reveals Chinese firms have committed upwards of US$100 billion to outbound foreign investment since 2023 – spanning decarbonisation sectors like solar, wind, and green hydrogen – as the country’s corporates increasingly “go global”. And while other regions of the world have reaped the rewards of this unprecedented investment program, CEF notes that investment in Australia has been comparatively, “exceptionally weak”. Read more

[On Oil Price]China is investing heavily in electric vehicle assembly plants, battery plants, and transition technologies abroad to counteract Western tariffs. Chinese companies are not only expanding manufacturing capacity but also exporting technology, engineering, supply chain, and financing expertise globally. European and U.S. companies are struggling to compete with cheaper and often superior Chinese EVs. Read more

[On Accounting Times]In a new report, think tank Climate Energy Finance (CEF) said the wave of investment opportunities from the world’s second-largest economy was mostly bypassing Australia and going to markets in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America instead. Analyst Xuyang Dong, one of the report’s co-authors, said investment from Chinese firms brought a range of benefits including technology, expertise, capital and experience. “Australia should work actively with China, transforming our historic dig-and-ship economy in order to not be left behind in the global race-to-top on energy transition,” he said. “Joint ventures with China have enormous potential to boost Australia’s decarbonisation trajectory.” Read more

“China’s growing domination of cleantech manufacturing and export supply chains is clearly a geopolitical issue the U.S. and the Western world can’t continue to ignore,” said Tim Buckley and Annemarie Jonson at Sydney-based think tank Climate Energy Finance. “It is far from a secure, sustainable position for any country to dominate 80% to 90% of global market supply of anything,” they told The Wall Street Journal after CEF released a report on the surge in China’s outbound foreign direct investment into clean energy. Read more

Tim Buckley from Climate Energy Finance shares insights on China’s $100 billion investment in global clean tech projects. He notes the dominance of China in this sector and highlights the opportunities presented by increased trade tensions with the US and Europe. Tim observes that while Australia benefits from China’s renewable and battery project investments, there’s a lack of manufacturing investment in Australia by Chinese tech leaders. Collaboration with China is crucial, and Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ visit to China aims to enhance such partnerships. Australia must clearly present rules of engagement for Chinese private companies. While the US takes a protectionist stance, Tim stresses Australia’s need to cooperate with China, its top trade partner, ensuring mutual economic benefits amidst potential US-China trade tensions. Read more

China’s international investments in clean energy technology have surpassed $100bn (701.83bn yuan) since the start of 2023, according to a new report from Australian research group Climate Energy Finance (CEF). CEF explained that Chinese companies have diversified their portfolios across the world as they look to avoid tariffs from the US and other countries attempting to keep the Asian nation in check. Read more

[On the Guardian blog] There’s no doubt China has grabbed market leadership in many of the technologies we need to decarbonise our economies, from solar panels and wind turbines to electric vehicles and the batteries that power them. Australia stands to benefit from those advances and potentially from soaring outbound investment in low-emissions technology, according to a new report by Climate Energy Finance, out today. Since 2023, US$100bn (A$145bn) of Chinese investment has poured out of China into at least 100 deals, a flow of funds that Australia has partly benefitted from, with more to come, the report finds. A 1.4 gigawatt windfarm with a big battery is one such project. Read more