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.China has built up an enormous clean energy sector over the past two decades, which generated an estimated 15.4 trillion yuan (US$2.1 trillion) in economic output last year – equivalent to Brazil’s entire gross domestic product, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.