As America retreats from clean energy investment around the world, with US President Donald Trump labelling wind and solar power “the scam of the century” on Wednesday, Chinese “cleantech” firms have been striding into emerging markets in Southeast and Central Asia and Latin America.
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Mabill Technologies, a Malaysian cleantech start-up developing a predictive AI algorithm that will connect energy efficiency analytics and sustainable cooling solutions, said Chinese investors had been showing “renewed interest” in its business.
Chinese cleantech firms “are deepening their influence in Asean by embedding proprietary technologies into local supply chains”, said Seemantani Sharma, co-founder of the company, noting that China was “explicitly projecting itself as a hub for clean energy”.
Through “tech diplomacy with long-term supply chain capture”, she said China transferred selective know-how while “retaining control of critical intellectual property through joint ventures, training academies and Belt and Road-funded infrastructure”.
In the process, Sharma added that China “promotes” its technical standards, especially in solar power, batteries and electric vehicles, through regional forums and bilateral agreements that will be “gradually aligning” energy systems in the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with Chinese intellectual property ecosystems.
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In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump said his administration would “not approve wind or farmer destroying solar” projects because American states that had built and relied on windmills and solar for power were “seeing record breaking increases” in electricity and energy costs.
In addition to cutting global climate finance and renewable energy support previously channelled through agencies like the United States Agency for International Development, which he abolished, Trump also encouraged the passage of legislation last month that brought forward the phasing out of clean energy subsidies.