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Reports and Analysis |  |  Feb 1, 2024

REPORT | CEF’s activities and impacts report July-Dec 2023

A full overview of our work and impacts across our program areas for the 6 months July-Dec 2023 Read more

Reports and Analysis |  |  Jan 30, 2024

MONTHLY CHINA ENERGY UPDATE | 2023 China Electricity Mix Yearly Review: Massive Decarbonisation Progress is Key Economic Stimulus

In 2023, China experienced a groundbreaking surge in renewable energy, installing 292.8GW of clean power, surpassing expectations. Solar capacity grew by an impressive 148%, with 216.9GW added, while wind power increased by 75.9GW. These achievements, constituting 52.4% of total installed capacity, drove China’s economic growth and decarbonising China’s job market. Challenges remain, including high reliance on thermal power, but China’s clean energy push sets a global example for sustainable development. Read more

Reports and Analysis |  |  Dec 5, 2023

MONTHLY CHINA ENERGY UPDATE | The new elephant in the room at COP28 – Developed countries need to put the money where their mouths are 

China entered COP28 with greater climate ambition than anyone else in the room. China showcases its robust commitment to renewable energy with 82% of October’s 23.8GW capacity additions being zero emissions, primarily solar. Despite not joining the global pledge to triple renewable energy by 2030, China is on track to peak CO2 emissions soon. COP28 saw the start of the loss and damage fund, the total pledged amount to address loss and damage reached $656m, with Australia investing zero capitals. This is far from enough as the loss and damage in developing countries is already greater than $400bn per year and expected to grow. Read more

Reports and Analysis |  |  Nov 30, 2023

China’s Leadership in Cleantech Manufacturing is the Necessary Pre-condition of COP28 Goal to Triple Global Renewable Energy by 2030

There is consensus from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) that, in order to maintain the 1.5 degree pathway set out in the Paris Agreement, a tripling of renewables capacity to 11,000 GW by 2030 is required. According to the IEA, it is the single most important driver to keep 1.5C within reach. 90% of the renewable capacity growth would be from solar and wind, with wind capacity rising threefold from 2022 to 2030, and solar capacity fivefold. Put simply, this goal would be out of reach absent China’s massive green industrialisation of the last decade, the unprecedented acceleration of which underpins the financial viability of, and the market conditions to make possible, the global renewables revolution we need to see by 2030 if we are to avert the worsening climate crisis. Read more

Reports and Analysis |  |  Nov 29, 2023

REPORT | Decarbonising China & the World: Chinese Energy SOEs Supercharge Renewable Investment in Response to the 14th Five Year Plan

Our new report, led by CEF China analyst Xuyang Dong, finds that China’s massive energy-focussed State Owned Enterprises (SoEs) are shifting their huge capital expenditure (capex) in line with the central government’s renewable energy and emissions reduction targets, dramatically accelerating decarbonisation of the world’s second biggest economy. Supported by SoEs’ capital investments into renewables, China has already met its 2025 target requiring that 50% of installed capacity is renewable energy, and this target is likely to be exceeded by a significant margin. China’s domestic CO2 emissions could also fall in 2024 with its record increase in installation of zero-emissions energy sources and a recovery in hydropower, combined with enormous gains in electrification of transport and electric vehicle (EV) adoption, foreshadowing a structural plateauing of China’s emissions well before the formal target of a peak before 2030. This spells structural decline for Australian coal exports, driving home again our need to pivot our economy to value-adding critical minerals and onshoring clean manufacturing. Read more

Reports and Analysis |  |  Nov 27, 2023

China’s Leadership in Decarbonising Cleantech Manufacturing to Green the World

In September 2020, President Xi Jinping announced China’s national climate target to peak CO2-e emissions before 2030, and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. Despite coal-fired generation capacity expanding in China into 2023, deployment of zero emission generation has significantly outpaced fossil fuels. We examine the aggressive scope 1-3 decarbonisation plans of four Chinese world leaders: CATL, LONGi, JinKO Solar and Trina Solar, far ahead of Australian corporate ‘leaders’ like BHP, Wesfarmers and BlueScope Steel. Read more

 |  Nov 15, 2023

PRESENTATION | Renewable Energy & Critical Minerals Superpower

Tim Buckley’s presentation to the ANU’s Rare Earth Conference Read more

Reports and Analysis |  |  Nov 2, 2023

ANALYSIS| STILL WAITING: TREASURER FLAGS AUSTRALIAN RESPONSE TO US INFLATION REDUCTION ACT – GOOD START BUT MORE AMBITION URGENTLY NEEDED 

We welcome and applaud the Treasurer’s focus today on 4 key industry and economic opportunities, which reflect the key priorities CEF and its partners have identified: refining and processing critical minerals; supporting manufacturing of generation and storage technologies, including batteries; producing renewable hydrogen and its derivatives like ammonia; and forging green metals including green iron. We need to see further details, but the Treasurer’s assertion that $225bn capital investment is needed by 2050 is too low by orders of magnitude, this timeframe is too late, and it reveals a too-cautious federal policy mindset that risks forgoing Australia’s opportunity to position itself as a leader in global cleantech supply chains as the world moves at breakneck speed to decarbonise. Read more

Reports and Analysis |  |  Oct 30, 2023

MONTHLY CHINA ENERGY UPDATE | Renewable expansion beyond China via Belt and Road Initiatives

China’s renewables expansion remained strong in September, with 22.6GW of zero emissions capacity added. Hydropower continued to recover in September, reaching 139TWh, up 40.8% y-o-y. In contrast there was only a 2.8% y-o-y increase in thermal power capacity. This month saw China celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiatives (BRI) with a pledge of $107bn over the next five years. In the meantime, China’s massive scaling-up of solar manufacturing has changed global solar dynamics triggering a rapid price deflation of solar components and taking prices to record lows. Read more

Reports and Analysis |  |  Oct 26, 2023

OP ED | ALBO’S $2BN TOKEN FOR CRITICAL MINERALS MEANS OUR GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY GOES BEGGING

The $2bn top up for the federal Critical Minerals Facility pledged by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during his state visit to the US this week is an entirely insufficient response to the US$1 trillion industrial and energy stimulus of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The IRA is the biggest commitment of public funding in US history – and the single biggest opportunity for Australia this generation. Here’s why. Read more

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