Photo/VCG

Recently, the International Energy Agency(IEA) released its annual World Energy Outlook 2024 and Renewables 2024, suggesting that the global energy market is entering an "age of electricity" led by China, with China driving the rise of electric mobility. IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol noted that almost every energy story is essentially a China story.

The IEA report also suggest that globally, renewables are set to grow by a factor of 2.7 between now and 2030, driven by supportive policies and favourable economics. This surpasses current country-level policy ambitions by nearly 25%.

In 2023 alone, more than 560 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable energy capacity was added globally, with investments in clean energy projects nearing 2 trillion U.S. dollars annually - almost twice the amount being spent on new fossil fuel supply.

The report praised China's contribution, noting that the country accounted for 60% of the new global renewable capacity in 2023. By the early 2030s, China's solar PV generation is expected to surpass the current electricity demand of the entire United States.

"The story of global energy transition should not be a 'China story' but a 'global story' of solidarity and cooperation," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a daily press briefing in response to comments on China's energy industry.

In an interview with National Business Daily (NBD), IEA further noted that China dominates global clean energy manufacturing. It accounts for over 80% of global solar PV module and EV battery cell production.

File photo/Kong Zesi (NBD)

IEA told NBD that ample clean energy manufacturing capacity creates scope for faster transitions that move towards alignment with national and global net zero goals, but this means addressing imbalances in today’s investment flows and clean energy supply chains. "Over the past five years, annual solar capacity additions quadrupled to 425 GW, but annual manufacturing capacity is set for a sixfold increase to more than 1 100 GW, and this is concentrated in China."

There is a similar story of plentiful manufacturing capacity for lithium-ion batteries in China.

"China's huge manufacturing capacity for renewable power technologies provides the basis for continuing strong domestic deployment.Bringing these technologies at scale to developing economies would be transformative for the global outlook, helping rising demand to be met in a sustainable way and allowing global emissions not only to peak in the coming years, as they do in the Stated Policies Scenario, but also to enter a meaningful decline."IEA added.

According to Lin Jian, China has established the world's largest carbon emissions trading market, carried out green energy projects cooperation with more than 100 countries and regions, built a number of landmark projects of hydropower, photovoltaic and wind power in developing countries, and stopped building new coal power projects overseas.

In conclusion, IEA said to NBD that modernising and expanding electricity grids and increasing energy storage capacity are two key actions to support clean energy transitions in China and the world.