RENEWABLE energy is having its moment in the Chinese sun. The country’s investment in solar, wind and other clean energy technology has soared from $8 billion in 2005 to $103 billion in 2015. China now spends more on developing renewable energy than the US and Europe combined.
Most of this investment has been domestic, but China is now looking to sell its green tech to the rest of the world. In doing so, the nation steps into the climate leadership void left by the US under President Donald Trump. As Trump pursues an “America First” strategy and sings the praises of “beautiful, clean coal”, China is looking for ways to collaborate with other countries on tackling climate change.
“Every hour, China installs at least one wind turbine and enough solar panels to cover a football pitch”
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“Multilateral trade negotiations make progress only with great difficulty and the implementation of the Paris [climate] agreement has met with resistance,” China’s president Xi Jinping week at a meeting of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) nations. “Some countries have become more inward-looking, and their desire to participate in global development cooperation has decreased.”
To strengthen relations with other nations, China has begun one of the largest-ever trade initiatives, known as the Belt and Road. This links it to in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa along the historic Silk Road trade routes.
Many climate analysts hope this will drive uptake of China’s cheap renewables in the region and reduce nations’ reliance on fossil fuels, but there are also fears it could expand the country’s powerful coal industry.
So, as China adopts the stance of a true global power, will it help or hinder the worldwide renewables movement?
China is well placed to lead a clean energy push. Its enormous manufacturing capacity means it can churn out millions of cheap solar panels and tens of thousands of wind turbines each year. The country . that every hour, China installs at least one wind turbine and enough solar panels to cover a football pitch.
This capacity has allowed Chinese companies to shift their focus to the international energy market in recent years. Between 2002 and 2012, China invested in at least 124 solar and wind projects in 33 countries, according to the . Since the announcement of the Belt and Road network in 2013, this expansion has accelerated in countries taking part.
For example, Chinese firms have recently won tenders to build solar farms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Pakistan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Bulgaria, Jordan, Iran, Oman, Romania, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. They are also building wind farms in South Africa, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, and hydropower plants in Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
China is also setting its sights on linking up green energy grids across borders. Last year, it started talks with Russia, Japan and South Korea about building a . This would allow the four nations to share their solar, wind and hydro energy and balance out each other’s supplies when the sun isn’t shining or winds aren’t blowing – a key feature if you want to rely on renewables.
Beyond obvious financial rewards, China seeks to extend its political influence by globalising its clean energy tech, says at Chinadialogue, an independent environmental NGO in Beijing. “Over the last decade or so, the Chinese government has put a strategic emphasis on investing in renewable energy because it sees it as the next industrial revolution – one which it wants to lead,” he says.
at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis in Sydney, Australia, agrees. “China wants to dominate industries of the future while the governments of the US and Australia want to dominate industries of the past.”
But China’s renewable energy firms are facing competition from their fossil fuel counterparts, which also want to capitalise on the Belt and Road partnerships.
Since 2001, the country has been involved in at least 240 coal power projects in 25 of the participating countries. And in its 2015 Belt and Road , the Chinese government said the initiative should increase cooperation with other countries in pursuing coal and oil resources in addition to renewable energy.
This appears to have been borne out. Since the Belt and Road initiative was proposed in 2013, Chinese involvement in coal projects in the region has tripled, according to the Global Environmental Institute (GEI), a non-government agency based in Beijing.
Coal competition
For example, the deal has paved the way for Chinese companies to build several coal-fired plants in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and helped kick-start the operation of a Chinese oil pipeline across Myanmar after years of delay. These kinds of investments could lock in fossil-fuel dependency in developing countries before renewable energy gets a look-in, says , an energy analyst at Greenpeace in Beijing.
But Buckley believes there are several reasons why China’s clean energy sector will ultimately beat its fossil fuel competitors.
First, the rapidly declining cost of Chinese renewables will make them highly attractive to other countries. Chinese firm JinkoSolar, for instance, is constructing a solar farm in the UAE that produces electricity for . In comparison, the US average is for solar and for unsubsidised coal.
“This is key, because at the end of the day, economics drives most decisions,” says Buckley.
Speed is another advantage – a solar or wind farm can be built in six months, compared with five to 10 years for a coal-fired plant.
Many Belt and Road countries are also introducing environmental policies to limit fossil fuel use. India, which was previously the top destination in the partnership for Chinese coal investment, is now heavily backing solar energy and is aiming to get .
Finally, clean energy projects are more likely to win investors. The World Bank no longer finances overseas coal projects, unless under exceptional circumstances, such as in . Now, Chinese lenders appear to be following suit. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which was set up to fund the Belt and Road Initiative, has and promised to be “lean, green and clean”. At the same time, Chinese banks have become the world leaders in issuing green bonds to finance environmental projects.
“China wants to dominate industries of the future while the US wants to dominate the past”
These factors will allow China to drive the “biggest acceleration of global renewables uptake we’ve ever seen”, says Buckley. “I have almost zero doubt this will be the case.”
Tianjie is also positive. “I think China is going to change the landscape of global energy very fast in the near future,” he says.
If they are right, the long-held assumption that developed countries will lead the green revolution will be overturned. Instead, the fastest uptake of clean energy could come from China and the countries along the new Silk Road. Rich nations like the US may be the only ones left clinging to their “beautiful” coal.
This article appeared in print under the headline “Can China save the world?”
