China poised to earn vast profits from global energy transition: analysts

Chinese companies are primed to capitalise on a vast global wave of investment in clean energy infrastructure in the coming decades, as they are able to deploy solutions at a scale and cost that few can match, analysts said.

With China already rolling out green technologies – from wind and solar power to electric cars and batteries – at a massive scale domestically, its firms have the resources and know-how that other countries need to reduce their reliance on coal-fired power plants and gas-guzzling vehicles, they added.

“There’s going to be significant upside potential for Chinese companies that are well positioned to benefit from the billions – possibly trillions – of dollars that will be spent on new infrastructure development around the world in the decades ahead to mitigate against the effects of climate change,” said Eric Olander, editor-in-chief at The China-Global South Project.

“Chinese companies have the capacity to produce renewable energy products at a cost and scale that are unrivalled,” added Olander, whose organisation is a non-profit research firm.

The G20’s Global Infrastructure Hub estimated in 2017 that the world would need US$94 trillion of infrastructure investment by 2040 to support economic growth and close infrastructure gaps.