Subsidizing global decarbonization: how Chinese state support for clean technologies enables and (potentially) obstructs a worldwide green transition

Over the last decade, green technologies have been deployed at record-breaking speeds across the world. No actor has been more important to this process than China, which now dominates what is considered the ‘new three’ technologies (batteries, electric vehicles, solar). In this viewpoint article, we identify a two-step phenomenon that is reshaping global climate politics. First, we contend that, in effect, China is subsidizing a global green transition. While climate policy scholarship provides detailed accounts of China’s state support, it does not capture the critical ramifications of China’s approach to the green transition for other countries. Second, we argue that internal competition within China is increasingly having an impact outside of China. This two-step phenomenon jointly creates a yet underexplored tension at the heart of climate policy between the ability to compete with China and meeting climate targets. We therefore argue that the implications of Chinese dominance present dilemmas for the EU, the US, as well as other countries, and, by extension, avenues for the literature on global climate policy for decades to come.Key policy insightsChina is ostensibly subsidizing the global green transition through large-scale state support for green technologies domestically.There is decreasing competition with China in the ‘new three’ green technologies; there is presently only competition in China, as support for domestic sectors translates into uncompetitive prices for potential competitors in other countries.China’s dominance of green sectors presents several possible avenues for the European Union, the United States, and other countries: compete, cooperate, surrender, or abandon the green transition.As these trends are reshaping global climate politics, scholarship needs to address issues around whether China’s dominance has caused retrenchment in other countries’ climate ambitions, whether it is possible to compete with China, and what the domestic ramifications of such competition might be.