Submission Statement

I knew China dominated the renewables transition, but these figures starkly lay out just how great that domination is.

This exposes a crucial weakness for the rest of the world. As Covid & the Russian invasion of Ukraine have shown, relying on other countries for key supply chains can quickly turn into a disastrous vulnerability.

It's well within the realm of possibility that China may attempt to invade (or more likely blockade) Taiwan. As things stand now, that puts the global switch to renewables in peril.

Both the EU & US have recently been talking in terms of trillions of Euros and Dollars to localize green energy production, maybe they need to do even more?

While everyone else were talking about green jobs China was creating them.

What are those bars representing? Is China dark blue? or grey?

It makes extreme sense for them, even before any environmental considerations. Their navy isn't strong enough yet for them to be sure they'd be able to force through a blockade at the strait of Malacca, meaning they'd be stuck getting their fossil fuels through pipelines from Russia and central Asia only. Having complete renewable energy generation would make it way safer for them in terms of national security.

No surprise here. The West abandoned its manufacturing base decades ago, so how can it be expected to build new things?

Which is why the IRA was created. China's manufacturing dominance will end this decade.

It is first, second and third (and the rest) % of domination. So China is dark blue in those where it is first. Australia is dark blue in lithium for instance.

Thanks, that makes sense.

This was largely by necessity. Lacking large oil and gas deposits, and facing domestic and global opposition to burning coal, China dove into cleantech and electrification a decade before anyone else did.

Now the rest of us are playing catch up.