While the Trump administration has effectively declared war on wind and solar energy — blocking all permitting of projects on federal lands and pushing through a rollback of federal subsidies and tax credits — other nations are embracing renewable energy as a strategy for building economic and political strength. China remains the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases; however, it has also become the global leader in the manufacturing and deployment of renewable energy, electric vehicles and batteries, achieved through sustained industrial policy support that began a mere two decades ago.
The motivations were not primarily environmental. Chinese leaders saw these technologies as strategic industries of the future, and believed the country that dominated these technologies would gain economic and political advantage in the long run. Thus, clean technologies were included within China’s 2010 “Strategic Emerging Industries” policy and its “Made in China 2025” strategy.
Chinese thought leaders conceived of the strategy in epochal terms. The super power had missed out on each of the four major waves of industrialization technological change that had allowed European powers and the U.S. to become global hegemons and China’s elites and top academics were determined not to make the same mistake again. China’s Communist Party leadership saw clean technologies as part of a set of innovations, including artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing, that were critical to Chinese modernization and global competition.
That dominance in clean technologies would enable China to position itself as a leader in global climate talks; build stronger ties with Global South countries in need of cheaper, cleaner energy; and reduce choking pollution within China was only further reason to go all in on clean technologies.
This strategy has been wildly successful. Today, China makes more than 70% of solar PV modules, 80% of the cells that compose those modules and 90% of the wafers used to make cells. It manufactures more than 60% of electric vehicles globally and accounts for roughly three-quarters of global battery cell production, with even greater dominance in cathode and anode production and critical mineral processing. China has rapidly expanded offshore wind capacity and now accounts for more than half of global capacity (41.8 gigawatts), up from just 1 gigawatt in 2015. China’s surge in renewables and electrification is starting to shrink its greenhouse gas emissions while creating the conditions for other countries to move away from fossil fuel use, according to a recent analysis by the think tank Ember. The surge is putting China so far out in front on clean energy that it’s now in a league of its own.
Meanwhile, President Trump’s team is severely hampering the development of clean energy projects in the U.S. and is even threatening existing manufacturing investments. The regulatory assault on renewable energy is broad and plainly at odds with Trump’s declaration of an energy emergency. The attacks on clean energy include the August stop-work order on the Revolution Wind offshore project, which was 80% complete, and the removal of a panoply of support for clean energy in the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill.” The recent ICE raid on a multibillion-dollar Hyundai-LG battery plant project in Ellabell, Ga., was an own goal for an administration that claims to be bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.
It doesn’t have to be this way. While Democrats and Republicans have deep disagreements over the risks of climate change and the role of fossil fuels in the future American energy mix, there is a political consensus that Americans can benefit from maximizing the availability of cheaper, more abundant energy. Even Saudi Arabia, the ultimate petrostate, is embracing renewable energy and seeking to acquire half of all its electricity from clean sources by 2030. Several Saudi companies announced a combined investment of $8.3 billion this year to stand up massive new solar and wind projects, the Wall Street Journal recently reported. The desert kingdom is also investing in becoming a major supplier of critical minerals, like lithium, copper and rare earths.
It might sound funny that oil-rich Saudi Arabia is racing to go green. But more electricity from sunshine means more barrels of oil they can save for export to willing buyers. And the truth is that Chinese-made solar panels are now the cheapest and easiest ways to become energy rich.
The rise of China as the clean energy superpower and the ambitions of a country like Saudi Arabia show that the U.S. is thinking small. The Trump administration seems to be thinking about the next three years while rival nations are thinking about the next three decades.
Alex Wang is faculty co-director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, a professor of law at the UCLA School of Law and author of “Chinese Global Environmentalism” (forthcoming Cambridge 2025).
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