Prosperity
China and the Future of Energy: Ambition, Strategy, and Influence
October 2025 · Verona, Italy
Behind the headline figures of the energy transition lies a question of strategy and scale — and a transformation now reshaping global supply chains and energy governance alike.
The world has entered a new phase of electrification. According to the International Energy Agency, global investment in renewables, nuclear power, grid infrastructure and electrification is projected to reach roughly 2.2 trillion US dollars in 2025. A significant share of that investment is concentrated in a handful of economies that have built complete strategic and policy frameworks around clean power — and the scale of that build-out is changing how energy systems are planned worldwide.
From mega-grids to modular reactors
Three engineering directions illustrate the present frontier of clean-energy technology. The first is ultra-high-voltage (UHV) transmission: vast "green electricity highways" capable of moving power across thousands of kilometres, from remote deserts where generation is cheap to the dense urban centres where it is consumed. The structural logic is simple — most renewable resource sits far from most demand — and UHV is the infrastructure that reconciles the two.
The second is the small modular reactor (SMR): nuclear capacity built in standardised, factory-produced units rather than as one-off mega-projects, lowering cost and shortening timelines. The third, more experimental, is the circular-fuel reactor, including thorium molten-salt designs that promise to reduce long-lived waste. Together they sketch a portfolio approach to decarbonisation rather than a single bet.
The coal paradox
Yet the transition is not linear. Even economies that have met renewable targets ahead of schedule continue to invest in coal-fired capacity as a security backstop against volatile gas markets. Globally, investment in both renewables and coal is rising at the same time — a striking paradox that reflects the sheer scale of growth in energy demand, and a reminder that energy security and decarbonisation must be managed together, not traded against one another.
For Europe, the practical question is not who leads on any single metric, but how cooperation on standards, grid technology and storage can let each partner contribute its strengths. The infrastructure of the next energy era is being laid now; the institutions that shape its rules should be built alongside it.