For decades we’ve seen nations exercise geopolitical dominance tied to their production and control of fossil fuels – especially oil. But that leverage may be changing. Last year, China installed nearly twenty times the amount of wind and solar as the United States.
In this essay in The National Interest, the authors lay out a global political and economic realignment already underway. Petrostates, like those in OPEC, are increasingly at odds with electrostates like China and many in the EU. This isn’t to say that electrostates are not without resource challenges – they’re seriously dependent on mineral supply chains – but the challenges are different, as are the opportunities. When 70% of the world’s population lives in fossil-fuel-importing countries, how are these diverging resource paths shaping the global balances of power?
Guests:
Tatiana Mitrova, Global Fellow, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University
Vijay Vaitheeswaran, Global Energy & Climate Innovation Editor, The Economist
Li Shuo, Director, China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute
For show notes, related links, and episode transcript, visit https://climateone.org/podcasts
Highlights:
00:00 – Intro
04:30 – Tatiana Mitrova on petrostates and the idea of electrostates
10:00 – Electrostates are already taking market share from petrostates
13:30 – How Mitrova sees balance of power shifting as world electrifies
17:15 – Vijay Vaitheeswaran on the concept of an electrostate
26:00 – How cheap electricity could allow developing nations to skip over fossil fuels
34:00 – Vaitheeswaran on how U.S. should take on industrial policy in this moment
38:00 – Li Shuo: China’s latest 5-year plan suggests it will double down on clean tech sector
41:00 – China installed nearly twenty times wind and solar as U.S. last year
49:30 – China is on track to become firs
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