After two fraught weeks, the COP30 climate summit in Belem yielded only a fragile set of compromises, sidestepping once again the critical question of how quickly the world must phase out fossil fuels. Yet beyond the negotiation halls, the global energy system is already shifting – powered by more affordable clean technologies and rapid deployment. And on this front, no country is more consequential than China.
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The scale of China’s renewable energy build-out is unprecedented. Between 2021 and 2024, it added almost as much wind and solar capacity as the rest of the world combined, surpassing its 2030 target of 1,200 GW six years early. That momentum has carried into 2025, with over 210 GW of solar installed in the first half of the year – more than the total installed solar capacity of the United States – alongside another 51 GW of wind.
Yet, the more profound story is not just one of scale, but of systemic change. China’s energy transition is evolving beyond simply adding clean megawatts. It is becoming a structural shift – the construction of a clean mega-system able to sustain renewables at scale, ensure supply reliability, and push clean electricity deeper into the broader economy.
Systemic shift
On the supply side, this shift involves world-leading investments in grid infrastructure, including ultra-high-voltage transmission lines that move power across the continent-sized country, backed by massive battery deployment to balance the grid.
Demand is shifting too, with electricity accounting for about one-third of final energy use in 2023, outpacing many mature economies. Electricity is now the largest energy source in buildings and, since 2023, has overtaken coal as the biggest energy source in industry. Oil-derived fuels still dominate transport, but China’s fast-expanding electric vehicle fleet is steadily changing that balance.
As these changes take hold, the era of “more renewables, more coal” is coming to an end. In 2024, clean electricity – led by wind and solar – met 84.2% of new power demand, compared with less than half during the 2010s. In the first half of 2025, clean power met all new demand, pushing fossil generation down by 2.4%. Outside the power sector, deeper electrification has already brought a modest decline in fossil fuel use across industry, transport and buildings from its peak in the mid-2010s.
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