China is the first “electrostation” of the world and not because of its climatic moral

Fossil fuels defined the last two centuries of our history. The extraction, trade and conflict around oil and gas drawn the geopolitical and technological map we know. But the era of petrotesties is coming to an end. A new force has broken In the world order: China, the first “electrostate” of the world.

A decade of strategic planning. China already generates more than a quarter of its electricity With solar and wind energy. Its renewable industry grows exponentially, even exceeding the growth of energy demand. As a result, the country previously known for its air pollution You are already cutting its carbon dioxide emissions.

This milestone is no accident, but the fruit of a decade of strategic planning. Under the “Made in China 2025” initiative, The Chinese government drew a plan in 2015 to make the country a high -tech manufacturing leader. But Beijing’s motivation was not climatic morals. The country depended on the importation of oil and gas, a huge strategic vulnerability. The plan was a commitment determined by electrification, channeled in a massive display of wind energy, solar, batteries and electric vehicles.

China’s transformation into an electro -speaking. After developing full supply chains with unique economies, China has achieved a crushing domain of the renewable energy industry and electrification. Solar panels, Batteries and electric vehicles Chinese manufacturing are getting better and more affordable.

This has had a direct impact on developing countries. According to a Carbon Brief Analysisonly in 2024, Chinese exports of clean technology reduced CO2 emissions out of their borders by 1%. The deployment is so massive that the emissions generated during the manufacture of these products are compensated in less than a year of use.

A bipolar energy map. He China boom as electrostate He has created a new duality in power. On the one hand, there are the petroesties (Saudi Arabia, Russia …), whose energy influence is based on the export of hydrocarbons. On the other, the electrostators (with China at the head and Europe as a follower), which They base their power on electrificationrenewables and control of clean technology supply chains.

This new bipolarity will not last long. While petroesties depend on volatile and geopolitically complex markets, renewable energy is a form of sovereignty. Any country can generate its own electricity from the sun or wind, eliminating its dependence on imports and isolating the volatility of fuel prices.

The twilight of the petroesties. For countries that depend on the export of oil and gas, China’s rise is an existential threat. China is not just a competitor: it is its biggest client. And that customer is diversifying its energy sources at a dizzying speed. The impact is already noticeable.

Crude imports to China fell in 2024 for the first time in two decades, without counting pandemic. It is expected that The country’s oil demand reaches its maximum point in 2027. Since China has promoted two thirds of the growth of world demand for oil in the last decade, its deceleration will change the rules of the game for producers such as Russia and Saudi Arabia, which is already trying to reconvert renewable.

The giant contradictions. Despite its advances, China remains the world’s largest coal consumer And, paradoxically, continues to build new thermal plants. However, their average use is 50% and the law defines them since 2022 as a support to contribute flexibility to the electricity grid.

A more worrying sector is that of its carbochimic industry, which converts coal into fuels and chemicals. This sector added 3% to the total CO2 emissions of China between 2020 and 2024. In any case, the country has cut its CO2 emissions by 1% during the first half of 2025, compensating for other sectors with the massive renewable deployment.

A tectonic movement. The rise of China as the first electrostate in the world is the omen of a global change. A transformation promoted by self -interest, national security and industrial ambition, not by climate altruism, but whose effects are accelerating global decarbonization in a way that international negotiations by themselves have not achieved.

We are entering an era in which geopolitical power will not be measured only in oil barrels, but in renewable capacity gigawatts, in the control of critical minerals and in the domain of supply chains of batteries and solar panels. The Era of the Petroestados is coming to an end, and the dawn of the era of the electrostates is already here. The rules of global power are being rewritten, this time with electrons.

Image | Freepik

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