China is driving renewable energy growth globally — it’s also the world’s biggest coal producer
As the US pulls back on wind and solar investments, China is going all in on both clean energy and carbon-emitting sources.
The state of renewable energy in 2025 can be described by paraphrasing Charles Dickens: it’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times.
Yesterday, new research from BloombergNEF outlined that while global investments in renewable energy are hitting new highs, reaching a record $386 billion in the first half of the year, expenditure on renewable projects in America is slumping significantly.
The US saw the greatest drop in new renewable energy investment of any country in H1 2025, with recorded committed spending decreasing by $20.5 billion (down 36%) from the latter half of 2024. Per Bloomberg, wind and solar commitments in particular fell to almost $35 billion — less than half the record-high ~$72 billion investment seen in H2 2023 — and wind investments alone were down 67% compared with the same period last year.
America’s shift from green energy is in line with the Trump administration rolling back government subsidies funding renewables; in July, a huge spending package for solar and wind projects was slashed as part of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
A whole (re)new world
Though financing for larger projects has fallen “amid concerns over revenue risk,” per Axios reporting, global investment in renewable energy projects is gaining momentum with the rise of smaller-scale projects... but mostly because China, the biggest energy consumer globally, is continuing to build its renewables capacity despite pressure from lower power prices.
Just last month, Chinese officials showed off a new solar farm that they claim will be the world’s largest when completed, covering a projected 235 square miles, according to the AP — roughly the size of Chicago. Indeed, even though BloombergNEF found that China’s renewables investment contracted in H1 2025, the region still made up 44% of all new investment globally.
While China currently accounts for a third of global power demand, it’s straddling both sides of the energy divide. It’s simultaneously the biggest producer of clean energy and the biggest carbon emitter; it’s leading the charge in renewable energy investment, having pledged to peak carbon emissions before 2030, and it’s approving coal production projects at a rapid clip, starting construction on 94 gigawatts of new coal power capacity last year alone.
Whether China edges closer toward its goal of net carbon neutrality by 2060 or leans more on carbon-emitting sources, catalyzed by the same AI power push that’s keeping the heat on coal and gas in the US, we’ll see its giant contradictory energy plights go head-to-head in years to come.
