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Climate|‘China Is the Engine’ Driving Nations Away From Fossil Fuels, Report Says
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/climate/china-clean-energy-fossil-fuel-research.html
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Its vast investment in solar, wind and batteries is on track to end an era of global growth in the use of coal, oil and gas, the researchers said.
Sept. 8, 2025, 8:00 p.m. ET
Since the beginning of the industrial age, the global economy has required more and more fossil fuels — coal, oil and gas — to power growth.
It is increasingly clear, however, that China’s aggressive efforts to sell batteries, solar panels and wind turbines to the world is on course to bring that era to an end, a new report says. The Chinese dominance of clean-energy industries is “creating the conditions for a decline in fossil fuel use,” according to a report by Ember, a research group focused on the prospects for clean-energy technologies.
The report includes a sprawling set of data to support its claim.
As renewables rise, fossil fuels show signs of plateau
Monthly electricity generation in China, 12-month rolling total
Source: Ember
Note: Other clean sources include hydroelectricity, nuclear and biofuels
By Harry Stevens/The New York Times
The scale of Chinese production since 2010 has driven the price of these technologies down by 60 to 90 percent, the researchers found. And last year, more than 90 percent of wind and solar projects commissioned worldwide produced power more cheaply than the cheapest available fossil-fuel alternative, they said. That cost advantage might have seemed laughable before China began pumping billions of dollars of subsidies into the sector.
“China is the engine,” said Richard Black, the report’s editor. “And it is changing the energy landscape not just domestically but in countries across the world.”
If Beijing is trying to wrest the future of energy from anyone, it would be the United States, the world’s biggest oil and gas producer and exporter. The Trump administration has eliminated almost all federal support for renewable energies and has pressured countries to purchase American fossil fuels as part of trade deals.
Renewables meet most of China’s new electricity demand
Share of electricity demand growth met by different sources
Source: Ember
Note: Fossil fuels include mostly coal with small amounts of oil and natural gas
By Harry Stevens/The New York Times
