CREA Analysis: Clean energy was top driver of China’s economic growth in 2023
Lauri Myllyvirta, Lead analyst at Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and senior fellow at Asia Society Policy Institute spoke to CGTN Europe on China’s clean energy industry.
Transcript
00:00 Clean energy was the lead driver of growth in China last year.
00:04 It contributed a record 1.6 trillion dollars to the economy in 2023.
00:09 Investment in the industry rose 40% year on year to 890 billion dollars.
00:14 And that accounts for all of the growth in investment
00:17 and a larger share of economic growth than any other sector.
00:21 And that surge has been largely driven by investment in the so-called
00:24 new three industries of solar power, electric vehicles and batteries.
00:29 Well, Larry Maliberta is the lead analyst at the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
00:36 A few years ago, China announced the target of carbon neutrality before 2060,
00:42 which was a strong political signal.
00:44 Then there was the huge spike in the prices of fossil fuels, oil, coal and gas.
00:52 And most recently, the slowdown in China's real estate,
00:56 which used to be a major target for investment.
00:59 So a lot of financing and bank loans suddenly were looking for a new target.
01:06 And clean energy seemed like the prime opportunity.
01:10 So it seems like in many ways the Chinese economy was driven towards renewable energy,
01:16 but now it's a fixed policy, that's for sure.
01:19 How does it tie in with the wider economic and political and industrial priorities?
01:24 So last year was the first time that clean energy actually became a major driver of economic growth.
01:32 So in that sense, it's become a key part of China's economic strategy.
01:37 It, of course, aligns with the goal of making China's economic growth more high quality,
01:44 making the economy deliver more of the things that improve well-being and quality of life
01:50 and environmental protection and so on.
01:53 I mean, the amounts are huge.
01:55 Your report quotes the GDPs of Turkey and Switzerland.
01:59 In terms of clean energy investment, then, how does China compare globally?
02:05 If you look at the deployment, the installation of solar, wind, nuclear and so on,
02:13 China is at least half of the world's total.
02:16 So on the downstream side, China is already big.
02:20 On the upstream side, China is even more dominant.
02:24 So the vast majority of the world's solar batteries and so on are produced in China,
02:30 and the vast majority of the manufacturing investment is taking place in China.
02:34 So that definitely puts China far and away ahead of anyone else in terms of the total investment.
02:42 I mean, in terms of environmental enthusiasm,
02:45 we're used to looking at the political debates in America and in Europe and in parts of Latin America, perhaps.
02:53 So is China's enthusiasm for this kind of technology, is it purely pragmatic business sense,
02:59 or do you think there is an environmental movement within Chinese society?
03:06 If you think about air pollution, other very tangible environmental problems that you can see everywhere in China,
03:13 I can tell you for sure that many of the people in government and in business who are working on this
03:19 are also inspired by making China cleaner.
03:24 And there is a sense that these clean energy technologies are part of a successful modern society.
03:34 So that also motivates people to work in clean energy rather than other sectors, if they have the choice.
03:41 choice.