WEST’S REAL CRISIS IS ENERGY, NOT POLITICS
THE NATIONS of southeast Asia are about to follow China in overtaking the United States and Europe in modern electrification, a new study showed.
China already overtook the OECD, a club of mostly rich western nations, in 2015, but the rest of the region is following suit, as inexpensive Chinese solar panels, wind turbines, electric cars and other new energy products spread.
China is exporting the capacity to build electrotech, with more than US$100bn of outbound foreign direct investment on electrotech since 2023.
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DETERMINING THE FUTURE
The issue here is NOT just energy, but nations’ future development as a whole, warned researchers at Ember, a global energy consultancy.
The study said:
“As the marginal cost of electricity falls towards zero, energy abundance will unleash new waves of growth, industrial competitiveness, and digital innovation. Emerging markets stand to benefit most; petrostates face decline; and new electrostates will emerge.”
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EUROPE’S ENERGY DISASTER
A US proxy war in 2022 cut Europe off from cheap Russian oil, creating an energy crisis that is damaging industry in Germany and its neighbors – just as China and its neighbors started to accelerate towards a different energy model.
The result is slower growth for the OECD, which consists of US, UK, European nations, along with some allies, such as Israel and Japan. In contrast, China is profiting from having taken the new energy industry seriously for years.
“The same engine that drove the rise of smartphones and laptops now powers electrotech, built in the same Chinese factories, led by people with IT roots, and using the same manufacturing processes,” said Daan Walter, Principal at Ember.
“It’s an industrial engine designed to disrupt the world: it did this for information before, and now it is doing it for energy.”
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TAKE IT AS A WARNING
The report echoes a New York Times warning in June: “Beijing is selling clean energy to the world, Washington is pushing oil and gas.”
The Ember study is also framed as a warning: “Countries that want to reap the benefits of the electrotech revolution need to overcome fossil fuel resistance and get on with profound change.”
The EU and UK’s disastrous loyalty to the US has left it with a hostile positioning towards China and Russia, the sources of the energy it needs. There’s no easy solution, as a new push is now being launched to reverse plans to bring the war in Ukraine to a peaceful end.
In recent days, persons unknown are using decoy drones and media tales to create a narrative that Russia plans to invade Europe and UK.
Further, the US has backed away from a semi-agreed compromise, indicating that it too has decided it wants the war in Ukraine to be further prolonged. While the media will blame Russia, the real victims of Donald Trump’s change of heart will be the long-suffering Ukrainians.