{"id":395169,"date":"2026-04-16T12:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T12:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/395169\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T12:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T12:24:10","slug":"with-hormuz-closed-china-is-wiring-the-globes-clean-energy-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/395169\/","title":{"rendered":"With Hormuz Closed, China Is Wiring the Globe\u2019s Clean Energy Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the world\u2019s preeminent\u00a0electrostate<\/a>, China will gain a substantial advantage from the energy leapfrog. Having\u00a0built out<\/a> its own electrical system over the last two decades, it is primed to provide power lines, transformers, and other grid hardware to the rest of the world. China is also increasingly able to supply software that allows grid operators to manage a diverse and variable mix of renewable and other resources. Chinese state-owned firms will even build and manage an entire regional or national grid, as they are doing across\u00a0South America<\/a> and\u00a0southern Europe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finally, China\u2019s investments in research, development, and demonstration (RD&D), as well as plans to deploy new energy technologies, suggest that it will bolster its position in the future. Chinese scientists\u2019 and inventors\u2019 share of high-quality publications and patents in these fields is\u00a0surging<\/a>. The central government announced about\u00a0150 large-scale demonstration projects<\/a> to prove new technologies at commercial scale in 2024 and 2025. The latest\u00a0five-year plan<\/a>, finalized just weeks ago, adds clean aluminum, green hydrogen, and a host of other advances to its energy technology priority list.<\/p>\n

The accelerated export of China\u2019s electrostate model\u00a0will likely reduce<\/a> climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions in the long run. Electric vehicles are generally\u00a0cleaner<\/a> than their combustion counterparts, for example, even when emissions embodied in their batteries are taken into account. In the short and medium run, however, the rising demand for electricity is likely to increase\u00a0reliance on coal<\/a>, the dirtiest fossil fuel. China\u2019s heavy dependence on coal for power generation is only beginning to be shaved by renewables, and much of its massive manufacturing sector still uses\u00a0emissions-intensive methods<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn employee changes the price signage of fuel at a petrol station in San Fernando, Pampanga province, the Philippines, on April 3, 2026.
\nTed Aljibe\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the shift from coal to LNG, which was one of the most promising pathways to reduce global emissions in the medium term, is likely to slow considerably as a result of the war. Physical damage to LNG production facilities in Qatar will take\u00a0several years<\/a> to repair. Repairing the psychological damage incurred by the cutoff of the strait, however temporary it proves to be, could take even longer.<\/p>\n

The United States appears at first glance to be well positioned to step into the breach. The world\u2019s largest LNG exporter was already in the process of\u00a0doubling its capacity<\/a> before the war. Yet, President Donald Trump\u2019s coercive approach to diplomacy could cause potential customers to be cautious. He has regularly sought to strongarm trade partners to expand LNG imports from the United States. The war itself cavalierly put the energy security of U.S. partners and allies at risk. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is proposing\u00a0massive cuts<\/a> to federal funding for energy RD&D, has decimated tax incentives for renewables and EVs, and attacked some emerging technologies like offshore wind.<\/p>\n

If future geopolitics are\u00a0defined<\/a> in part by a struggle for global influence between a Chinese electrostate and a U.S. petrostate, the Iran war is a self-inflicted wound. In the short run, the first rule of holes applies: \u201cStop digging.\u201d In the long run, the United States should recognize the grave limits of the resource dependent, environmentally unsustainable petrostate model and compete more effectively for leadership in the \u201cAge of Electricity<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

This work represents the views and opinions solely of the authors. The Council on Foreign Relations is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher, and takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the world\u2019s preeminent\u00a0electrostate, China will gain a substantial advantage from the energy leapfrog. Having\u00a0built out its own…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[114,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-395169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}