Wind turbines on farmland
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Investors can generally ignore goals that world leaders promise the U.N. General Assembly they will achieve 40 years from now. Chinese President
Xi Jinping
’s recent pledge to make his country carbon neutral by 2060 is an exception.
The scope of Xi’s ambition, in a country that still gets two-thirds of its power from coal, is breathtaking. Follow-up documents from a Tsinghua University think tank estimate China will have to spend $15 trillion on green transformation, increasing solar power six times and wind more than three times.
But these aims are underpinned by achievements. From a standing start 10 years ago, China has created seven of the world’s top 10 solar module manufacturers, says Xiaojing Sun, who follows the sector for consultant Wood Mackenzie.
These upstarts have largely wiped out European competitors on price, while high U.S. import tariffs have failed to stimulate
