China’s clean energy boom is reshaping the country’s energy system and signaling the beginning of a global fossil fuel decline, according to Ember’s China Energy Transition Review 2025.
Policy, investment, and innovation are accelerating China’s structural shift from coal, oil, and gas to solar, wind, storage, and electrification, Dr Muyi Yang, coordinating lead author of Ember’s China Energy Transition Review 2025, said.
China’s Fossil Fuel Use Falls as Clean Energy Surges
Over the past decade, fossil fuel use across China’s buildings, transport, and industry has steadily shrunk. In the power sector, fossil consumption has flatlined, with 2025 witnessing a 2 percent decline in fossil output compared to last year. At the same time, clean energy generation has soared — wind power rose 16 percent and solar power jumped 43 percent in the first half of 2025.
For the first time, wind and solar combined produced more electricity than hydro, nuclear, and bioenergy, marking a historic milestone in China’s energy transition.
Record Clean Energy Investments Power the Shift
China remains the world leader in renewable energy investments, channeling $625 billion USD in 2024 into clean energy projects — about 31 percent of the global total. Wind and solar capacity doubled between 2021 and 2024 to reach 1,400 GW, while battery storage nearly tripled to 95 GW. Grid modernization also received a major boost with $85 billion USD invested in 2024 to support renewable integration and reduce energy curtailment.
Electricity’s role in China’s energy mix is expanding rapidly. In 2023, electricity accounted for 32.4 percent of final energy consumption, rising by nearly one percentage point each year. Electricity is now the dominant energy source in both buildings (39 percent) and industry (31 percent), overtaking coal in the industrial sector for the first time in 2023.
Clean Energy as the Foundation of China’s Economy
Ember’s report emphasizes that China’s clean energy transition is not only about climate action but also about economic competitiveness and energy security. In 2024, clean energy industries contributed $1.9 trillion USD to China’s economy, equivalent to nearly one-tenth of national GDP.
Businesses are investing heavily in renewables, EVs, and batteries, seeing them as cheaper and more secure than fossil fuels. The government’s long-term vision, embedded in its constitutional commitment to building an “ecological civilisation” and reinforced by the 2023 Energy Transition White Paper, is accelerating this pivot.
Global Implications: Fossil Fuel Exporters Face Rising Risks
China’s structural shift carries global consequences. For two decades, China drove much of the world’s fossil fuel demand growth. Now, with its consumption peaking and beginning to decline, fossil fuel exporters face increasing economic risks.
Meanwhile, China’s mass production of solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicles is driving down technology costs globally, enabling faster adoption of clean energy in emerging economies. By 2024, one in four emerging economies sourced more final energy from electricity than the United States, and 63 percent generated a higher share of electricity from solar.
As Ember notes, China’s clean energy transformation may mark the turning point from a century of rising fossil fuel demand toward the first structural decline — reshaping both global energy markets and geopolitics.
Baburajan Kizhakedath