China is currently outpacing the United States in the global energy export race, not with oil or gas, but with clean energy technologies, News.Az reports, citing Bloomberg.
While the US focuses on selling fossil fuels, China has been steadily increasing its exports of electric vehicles, solar panels, batteries, and other carbon-cutting products.
According to the news agency, the country’s exports of electric vehicles, solar panels, batteries and other carbon-cutting technology has been climbing for years. Exports hit a record in August, with $20 billion in products shipped globally, according to a new report from the think tank Ember.
The US, which has positioned itself as a major fossil fuel exporter, sold $80 billion in oil and gas abroad through July, the last month with data available. China exported $120 billion in green technology over the same period.
That’s a continuation of a trend. The US hit a record in oil exports in 2024, according to the Energy Information Administration. Yet China’s clean technology exports were $30 billion higher.
Bloomberg reports that crucially, China’s exports in emerging markets are growing rapidly. This year, more than half of China’s electric car exports have come from outside the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a rich-country club.
The US, under President Donald Trump’s first term and then former President Joe Biden, pushed for higher oil and gas production. As a result, the country rapidly increased oil and gas exports. Trump is trying to drive production even higher in his second term by loosening regulations while also kneecapping the green technology sector.
It’s worth noting that China is a big importer of oil and gas, and it’s so energy hungry that it deploys most of the clean tech it manufactures. This quarter, China will sell more electric cars domestically than all cars sold in the US, regardless of fuel type. The US, on the other hand, can meet all its fossil fuel needs.
Still, both countries have excess capacity in their areas of strength, which helps them generate billions of dollars in export revenue each year. The US may boost fossil fuel exports further and start to earn more revenue than China does from low-carbon goods that keep getting cheaper. However, China’s clout among other countries will likely grow because the volume of its clean tech exports will keep increasing.
From the point of view of countries importing American or Chinese energy goods and technologies, the division could not be starker: “Clean energy exports is hardware, which once a country has bought it, will generate electricity for a decade or two to come,” said Greg Jackson, chief executive officer of Octopus Energy, the UK’s largest energy retailer. “Whereas with gas, the day you buy it, you use it, it’s gone forever.”
