China’s world-leading solar, battery and electric vehicle companies have sharply increased foreign investment plans in recent years, pledging more than $210 billion since 2022, according to new research.
Chinese companies are expanding their supply chains abroad to capture new markets, avoid tariffs and get closer to sources of raw materials, Johns Hopkins University’s Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab said in a report. Researchers at the lab and Brown University have tracked more than 460 overseas green manufacturing projects announced by Chinese firms since 2011, finding that more than 80% of them came after 2022.
As U.S. President Donald Trump dismantles his predecessor’s green policies and Europe struggles with regulatory gridlock, China has become the driving force behind the global energy transition. Its world-leading clean tech investments have brought down costs in China and abroad, while raising concerns about over-reliance on the country in some of its geopolitical rivals, as well as environmental and working conditions at some overseas facilities.
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