China is the world’s leading country in electricity production from renewable energy sources, with over triple the generation of the second-ranking country, the United States. China’s clean technology industries — particularly the “new three” sectors; photovoltaic, lithium-ion batteries and new energy vehicles — have emerged as key engines of growth in China.
While global renewable energy investment reached US$771 billion in 2024, only 15% of that total went to the developing world outside China. Given their large population and fast-growing economies of the Global South nations, this level of investment is inadequate.
China’s strengths in clean technology and infrastructure development can play a pivotal role in catalyzing the deeper reforms which may unlock large-scale investment across developing countries.
Scaling up China’s support for strategically important projects is one key step. Fostering green industrialization can be achieved by integrating solar power with battery storage, or creating a network infrastructure that connects renewable energy zones with demand centers. Chinese private battery and EV companies already are driving such technology transfers and job growth through joint ventures in Thailand.
Many of these projects help lower energy costs, create job opportunities, and restructure fossil-dependent economies around emerging clean technology industries. But the ripple effects that follow investments by Chinese companies in this sector are significant. As people in the Global South experience these economic and environmental improvements firsthand, this recognition of the transformative potential of renewable solutions should win their support for the broader changes necessary to sustain their progress. Such bottom-up support is essential to generate the political will to push for deeper essential energy reforms.
China’s domestic success in renewable, battery and EV industries stems from decades of sustained policy support, investment, R&D, and the development of integrated industrial clusters. So rather than starting from scratch, some Global South countries are tapping China’s technological and industrial expertise to accelerate their own low-carbon industries.
Energy hunger in the Global South is exploding. Southeast Asia’s booming economies alone will account for 25% of global energy demand by 2035. No one country can supply this market.
Collaboration, parallel action, and even competition between China and western countries to develop energy infrastructure and policies in emerging markets could help unlock significant new opportunities in renewable energy and economic growth for all.
Source: New Security Beat, Feb 13, 2024. https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2025/02/chinas-role-in-financing-the-energy-transition-in-the-global-south/
- Extracts from article by Muyi Yang & Xunpeng Shi
- New Security Beat is the blog of the Wilson Center Environmental Change and Security Program, based in Washington, DC, USA
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