{"id":286185,"date":"2026-02-16T03:52:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T03:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/286185\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T03:52:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T03:52:26","slug":"china-is-the-planets-clean-energy-superpower-but-theres-another-country-snapping-at-its-heels-and-its-moving-even-faster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/286185\/","title":{"rendered":"China is the planet\u2019s clean energy superpower but there\u2019s another country snapping at its heels \u2014 and it\u2019s moving even faster"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Prem Chand is one of the many rickshaw drivers who spend their days darting and weaving along Delhi\u2019s hectic roads. And like an increasing number of the city\u2019s many thousands of<\/a> rickshaws, Chand\u2019s vehicle is electric.\n <\/p>\n

\n He used to drive a gas-powered cab but ditched it eight months ago when he did the math and realized an e-rickshaw was far cheaper to run. Plus there\u2019s an added bonus: it pumps no tailpipe pollution into the city\u2019s famously toxic air.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis is good for my pocket and for my environment, so why wouldn\u2019t I make the switch?\u201d Chand said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Electric three-wheeler vehicles dominate in many Indian cities, relied on for short journeys between metro stations, offices, shops and homes. It\u2019s not just an urban phenomenon, either; e-rickshaws have proliferated in rural areas. Across India, nearly 60% of all three-wheeler sales are now electric.\n <\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

\n The transport revolution unfolding in the world\u2019s most populous country is messy \u2014 plenty of e-rickshaws are unauthorized and run on stolen electricity \u2014 but its speed and scale is reflective of a remarkable clean energy boom.\n <\/p>\n

\n While many look to China as an unassailable clean energy superpower<\/a>, India\u2019s electrification pathway may end up being even faster, according to a new report<\/a> from climate think tank Ember, with big implications for the rest of the world. India is the planet\u2019s third-biggest climate polluter and what happens here affects everyone.\n <\/p>\n

\n To compare the energy pathways of the two countries, Ember looked at what was happening in China in 2012, when it had similar income levels to India today, around $11,000 per person. China had virtually no solar capacity at that point, but solar currently makes up 9% of India\u2019s electricity mix, from rooftop installations to huge sprawling solar farms. India is now the world\u2019s third-largest<\/a> solar power producer.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s a similar story for electric vehicles. EVs account for around 5% of all car sales in India and it sells more electric three-wheelers than any other country. In 2012, China had very few EVs on its roads.\n <\/p>\n

\n That\u2019s not to say India isn\u2019t still heavily reliant on planet-heating fossil fuels. It has plans to scale up coal over the next two decades and its oil consumption is growing<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n The country\u2019s soaring energy demand means, even though it\u2019s adding renewable energy at pace, coal is not yet getting displaced from the grid, said Debajit Palit from the Centre for Climate Change & Energy Transition at the Chintan Research Foundation, an independent think tank.\n <\/p>\n

\n Yet, even as India remains wedded to the dirtiest fossil fuel, its coal consumption is roughly 40% of China\u2019s at the same stage of development, Ember found. India also has much lower oil demand for transport, about half China\u2019s levels per person in 2012.\n <\/p>\n

\n China may now be on course to become the world\u2019s first electrostate, but it built its might on fossil fuels, said Kingsmill Bond, energy strategist for Ember and a report author. It opted for the cheapest, most accessible energy, he said, \u201cwhich 30 years ago, was fossil technology, but now it\u2019s not; it\u2019s electrotech.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In contrast, India could \u201cleapfrog\u201d an era of more intensive fossil fuel burning and take a shortcut to a cleaner energy future, Bond said.\n <\/p>\n

\n India\u2019s clean energy transition is being driven mainly by one thing: cost.\n <\/p>\n

\n In 2004, when China used a similar amount of energy per person as India does now, coal was about ten times cheaper than solar. Today, solar energy plus the cost to store it is about half as much as new coal plants, according to Ember.\n <\/p>\n

\n Costs of solar panels, wind turbines and batteries have all plummeted. Battery prices alone dropped 40% in 2024, Bond said. These kinds of steep reductions simply aren\u2019t possible with fossil fuels, he added.\n <\/p>\n

\"Solar<\/p>\n

\n Clean energy can also help give India something many countries are seeking: energy independence.\n <\/p>\n

\n For the Trump administration this phrase is shorthand for boosting oil and gas, reviving coal<\/a> and strangling wind and solar<\/a>. For India, clean energy offers the chance to reduce its reliance on other countries in an increasingly volatile world.\n <\/p>\n

\n India imports close to 90%<\/a> of its oil and half its gas<\/a>, leaving it exposed to price shocks and geopolitical turmoil, said Thijs Van de Graaf, an associate professor of international politics at Ghent University. \u201cRenewables help reduce this vulnerability,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n There are challenges. India\u2019s clean energy rollout still relies on China, which dominates supply chains for critical minerals and electrotech.\n <\/p>\n

\n India does have plans to reduce its dependence. Over the last decade, solar module production has surged 12-fold, Ember\u2019s report noted. The government has also launched a \u201cnational critical mineral mission\u201d to up production, Palit said.\n <\/p>\n

\n This offers a big potential advantage. The US is becoming an increasingly unreliable trade partner, and China\u2019s supply-chain monopolies are striking fear into many countries. There\u2019s a growing demand for alternative trading partners, Ember\u2019s report noted. A huge trade deal<\/a> signed between India and the European Union last month has been interpreted as a sign of this shift.\n <\/p>\n

\n Exactly how quickly \u2014 and how messily \u2014 India\u2019s clean energy revolution might play out isn\u2019t yet clear. But the overall takeaway is that India is charting a faster path to clean energy than that taken by China, Bond said: It\u2019s generating more solar, burning far less fossil fuel and electrifying transportation at a quicker rate.\n <\/p>\n

\n What India is doing could also be mirrored in other emerging economies, which may be able to harness increasingly cheap wind and solar at an even faster rate to power their economic development, Bond said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The kicker is President Donald Trump \u2014 who outspokenly detests clean energy and promotes fossil fuels \u2014 may be helping drive this revolution. His transactional, \u201cgo-it-alone\u201d approach only pushes energy import-dependent countries toward clean energy, Van de Graaf said. \u201cThe result is a growing divergence: a US prioritizing fossil fuel dominance, and emerging economies positioning themselves for an electrified energy future.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN\u2019s Esha Mitra in New Delhi contributed to this report.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prem Chand is one of the many rickshaw drivers who spend their days darting and weaving along Delhi\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-286185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}