Even a petrostate is going solar; as U.S. is left behind

By Alex Wang / Los Angeles Times

While the Trump administration has effectively declared war on wind and solar energy — blocking all permitting of projects on federal lands and pushing through a rollback of federal subsidies and tax credits — other nations are embracing renewable energy as a strategy for building economic and political strength.

China remains the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases; however, it has also become the global leader in the manufacturing and deployment of renewable energy, electric vehicles and batteries, achieved through sustained industrial policy support that began a mere two decades ago.

The motivations were not primarily environmental. Chinese leaders saw these technologies as strategic industries of the future, and believed the country that dominated these technologies would gain economic and political advantage in the long run. Thus, clean technologies were included within China’s 2010 “Strategic Emerging Industries” policy and its “Made in China 2025” strategy.

Chinese thought leaders conceived of the strategy in epochal terms. The super power had missed out on each of the four major waves of industrialization technological change that had allowed European powers and the U.S. to become global hegemons and China’s elites and top academics were determined not to make the same mistake again. China’s Communist Party leadership saw clean technologies as part of a set of innovations, including artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing, that were critical to Chinese modernization and global competition.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-even-a-petrostate-is-going-solar-as-u-s-is-left-behind/