Media

As the world races to decarbonise, China is leading the way. It committed more than $145 billion (USD 100 billion) in outbound foreign direct investment since 2023 across decarbonisation sectors including solar, wind, batteries, grid, new energy vehicles, hydro and green hydrogen. Yet, as the momentum of China’s green capital tsunami accelerates, Australia finds itself at a critical juncture: will we ride this wave, or be left behind? Read more

Analysts at Climate Energy Finance, a Sydney-based research group, have recorded a “tsunami” of investment in renewable energy and transport electrification projects, calculating Chinese companies have committed $109.2bn in outbound FDI across 130 clean technology transactions since the start of 2023, according to corporate announcements and financial statements. Tim Buckley, CEF director, said China was not just exporting its cleantech manufacturing capacity surplus, but was increasingly exporting its technology, engineering, supply chain and financing capacities. Xuyang Dong, a CEF analyst, noted that the “dramatic” increase in overseas FDI coincided with plunging prices for many cleantech products in China, following years of scaled up domestic manufacturing. Prices for solar modules and batteries have halved this year. Read more

China’s world-leading clean energy companies are investing more abroad amid fierce domestic competition and trade tensions with rivals like the US, according to a report by Climate Energy Finance. “When Chinese firms build a production facility elsewhere, it brings its technology, expertise, capital, experience, as well as opportunities for expanding local labor markets and boosting other nations’ domestic energy transition,” said Xuyang Dong, an energy policy analyst and one of the report’s authors. Read more

Tim Buckley details CEF”s new report, ‘Green capital tsunami: China’s >$100 billion outbound cleantech investment since 2023 turbocharges global energy transition’. He notes if Australia is to enjoy the benefits of the billions China’s cleantech leaders are investing into solar, wind, batteries, EVs etc across the globe, speeding global decarbonisation, it must embrace and welcome partnership and maintain positive bilateral relations. Read more

Australia China Business Council chair David Olsson reflects on CEF’s new Green Capital Tsunami report, which tracks $100bn since 2023 in foreign investment by Chinese firms in sun, wind, EVs, batteries and other cleantech around the world, noting that Australia has untold potential to partner with China and attract investment from the world’s cleantech superpower – if we get the foreign investment rules right. Read more

[Republished from Bloomberg] China’s world-leading clean energy companies are investing more abroad amid fierce domestic competition and trade tensions with rivals like the US, according to a report by Climate Energy Finance. “When Chinese firms build a production facility elsewhere, it brings its technology, expertise, capital, experience, as well as opportunities for expanding local labor markets and boosting other nations’ domestic energy transition,” said Xuyang Dong, an energy policy analyst and one of the report’s authors. Read more

Two-thirds of all new solar and wind power projects are based in the country. But to wean industry off coal, Beijing needs to set up a real energy market. If things go Xi’s way over the coming years, that will no longer be the case. “Considering the significance of the scale of everything China does, reaching or exceeding almost every energy transition target it sets has far-reaching impacts for the climate and our global emissions reduction goals,” says Xuyang Dong, a China energy analyst at Sydney-based think-tank Climate Energy Finance. Spending levels across the sector will need to increase over the coming decades if China is to reach Xi’s dual carbon targets, says Dong, of CEF. That includes adding around 330GW of solar, 80GW of wind capacity and 4GW of nuclear to the grid every year until 2040 — numbers that are “significantly above the current run rate”.  Read more

[On Carbon Brief] The Biden administration has “proposed prohibiting key Chinese software and hardware in connected vehicles on American roads due to national security concerns”, Reuters reports, adding that the move could in effect stop “nearly all Chinese cars from entering the US market”. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) publishes an opinion article by Xuyang Dong and Tim Buckley, analysts at thinktank Climate Energy Finance. They argue: “Viewing China’s overcapacity merely as a threat overlooks the massive potential it brings for an accelerated roll-out of clean energy in a world that must rapidly decarbonise to tackle the existential problem of climate change.” Read more

Surging small-scale renewables generation is helping China address growing power demand and slashing the role of coal in the country’s power mix, but Beijing’s widely followed monthly data reports omit output from the fast-growing sector. “China NBS’s generation data for wind and especially solar only capture some of the generation, whereas their capacity figures show the full picture,” said Xuyang Dong, China energy policy analyst at Sydney-based think tank Climate Energy Finance. Read more

China’s massive expansion of green technology can help the world decarbonise and decrease prices at a speed and scale required by the climate crisis. Read more

The global dynamic in the energy transition focuses on Australia, Europe or the US, with occasional reference to China. The capacity and deployment stats coming out of China are staggering, and not well reported. Read more

[Republished on Chinese media WeChat official account – Radio2000华语] Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance, emphasized the potential for cooperation between China and Australia in the fields of green energy transformation and manufacturing in an interview with reporters. As a major iron ore exporter, Australia can export green iron to China by using its own renewable energy for value-added processing, helping its steel industry decarbonize. In addition, there are huge opportunities for cooperation between the two sides in solar energy technology and polysilicon production. Overall, Australia can expand its competitive advantages in clean energy technology, key minerals and green manufacturing through cooperation with China, and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results. Read more