Green revolution is booming; just not in the U.S

By Mark Gongloff / Bloomberg Opinion

Given the hostility of the U.S. government to anything green and the daily drumbeat of headlines about canceled wind farms, tax breaks and environmental rules, you might mistakenly think clean energy is on its deathbed. In fact, by at least one measure, it’s healthier than ever.

Global investment in renewable energy sources hit $386.5 billion in the first half of 2025, according to BloombergNEF; the best six-month stretch on record, believe it or not. This happened despite a 36 percent decline in U.S. investment compared with the second half of 2024, when investors scrambled for one last shot at Inflation Reduction Act tax breaks doomed by President Donald Trump’s return to office. As feared, Trump wasted no time in trying to eradicate clean energy root and branch, slashing not only incentives but also any regulations that might motivate switching from fossil fuels. For good measure, he also upended global supply chains and business models with a novel trade philosophy that could be described as “chimp with an AK-47.”

Trump’s shortsighted assault on these emerging technologies at a time of booming electricity demand not only threatens to raise electric bills for Americans, it’s also handing geopolitical rival China the keys to the energy future. Facing heavy U.S. tariffs, China’s solar panels have poured instead into ripe new markets in Africa, where panel imports from China jumped 60 percent in the past year, according to the energy think tank Ember.

As it has for more than a decade, mainland China contributed the most to the world’s clean-energy boom in the first half, at $169 billion. That spending was down a smidgen from the second half of 2024, when a power-market policy shift in Beijing pushed developers to lock down projects before the end of the year.

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