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China Briefing handpicks and explains the most important climate and energy stories from China over the past fortnight. Subscribe for free here.
Key developments
New EU-China climate statement
CLIMATE STATEMENT: European Council president António Costa and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen signed an EU-China agreement on climate with Chinese premier Li Qiang at today’s EU-China summit, following a meeting with President Xi Jinping. (The Chinese version calls the statement a “joint statement”, while in the EU version it is a “joint press statement”). In it, the two sides “agree to demonstrate leadership together to drive a global just transition” and promote “ambitious, equitable, balanced and inclusive outcomes” at COP30. The statement also highlighted an agreement to “facilitat[e] access to quality green technologies and products, so that they can be available, affordable and beneficial for all countries, including the developing countries”.
NO LANGUAGE ON COAL: According to a commission press release, the EU “reiterated its commitment to…enhance” climate cooperation with China, plus “encouraged China to propose an ambitious plan for its emission reductions up to 2035 and to step up its international finance contributions”. This echoed earlier comments to Reuters by EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra that China must “take more of a leadership role” on climate action and “move out of the domain of coal”. However, the joint statement itself did not contain any language on coal. According to the statement, focuses for bilateral cooperation include the “energy transition, adaptation, methane emissions management and control, carbon markets and green and low-carbon technologies”, with the commission press release noting that the two sides had “intensive engagement” on emissions trading systems and the “circular economy” over the past 18 months.
CLEAN-TECH TENSIONS: The commission press release also noted that “current trade relations remain critically unbalanced”, with no further details on an expected agreement on electric vehicles. In an earlier meeting, according to state news agency Xinhua, Xi told his counterparts that “China and the EU should deepen green and digital partnerships and promote mutual investment cooperation”. It said he added: “It is hoped that the European side will keep trade and investment markets open, refrain from using restrictive economic and trade tools, and provide a favorable business environment for Chinese enterprises to invest and prosper in Europe.”
MEANS OF PRODUCTION: Earlier, China had issued “new restrictions” on technologies crucial to manufacturing electric vehicle (EV) batteries, reported the New York Times, with government licenses required for “any overseas transfer”. Cory Combs, head of supply chain research at consultancy Trivium China, told Carbon Brief: “My expectation is that Beijing will clear major Chinese producers to use their own tech in their own overseas facilities, but not to license to foreign competition”. He added that these restrictions were less likely to “impede climate cooperation” compared to the “massively disruptive” controls on exports of minerals and gallium metal extraction technologies.
Controversial ‘megadam’ launched
MEGADAM: Premier Li Qiang launched a “megadam” project, which is “expected to be the world’s largest hydroelectric facility”, on the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet, reported the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP). It added that the project, which raised significant concerns when proposed earlier this year, could provide 300 terawatt-hours of electricity – “three times that of the Three Gorges dam” and roughly the same as the UK’s entire output. According to the Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily, Li “described [the dam] as a project of the century”, adding that “special emphasis must be placed on…prevent[ing] environmental damage”. The project could also help “bolster economic growth as current drivers show signs of faltering”, Reuters said. (See below.)
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POWER ‘TORRENT’: Elsewhere, China has completed a 4,000km power transmission project in the Taklaman desert that will “create a torrent of green power” from renewable-energy rich Xinjiang province, according to Xinhua. The new infrastructure, which took 15 years to build, will “double transmission distance and boost transmission capacity” to three gigawatts (GW), allowing “connections to other regional power grids for long-distance power transmission”, SCMP reported. Separately, nationwide installations of solar capacity in June reached 14GW, down 36% year-on-year and down from 93GW of new solar in May, BJX News said.
INTER-GRID TRADING: Regulators approved a proposal by China’s two major grid companies to develop “routine power-trading” between different operators in China, BJX News reported, with the aim of strengthening China’s power supply. Business news outlet Jiemian said that, according to the grid operators’ plan, regulators will focus on “listed trading” (挂牌交易) of low-carbon electricity between specific provinces. A government official told industry outlet International Energy Net that the move was partially driven by the need to manage the integration of large amounts of new renewable energy capacity into the grid.
Clean-tech a key growth driver
LEADING THE PACK: According to an official at China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), China’s “new-three” industries “continue to maintain high growth rates”, China Environment News reported. The climate-related news outlet quoted an NBS official stating that China’s new-energy vehicle (NEV) industry grew 36% and the lithium-ion battery industry grew 53% in the first half of 2025, compared to overall economic growth of just over 5%. Meanwhile, the number of patents generated by clean-tech companies has “doubled” since 2020, with “53,000 invention patents granted” in 2024, according to the state-run newspaper China Daily.
‘GREEN FINANCE’: China has released a catalogue clarifying which projects can receive “green finance”, reported BJX News, noting that the list includes manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries and other “power-industry equipment projects”. The catalogue “serves as a reference for the future issuance of green loans and green bonds” and should “boost liquidity in the green finance market”, according to China Daily.
NEW PLAYBOOK: A high-level meeting on “urban work” attended by President Xi Jinping ended by pledging that the “focus [of China’s housing industry] will be directed toward building green, low-carbon and beautiful cities”, state news agency Xinhua reported. Reuters said that the meeting underscored that China is “abandoning [a strategy of] breakneck urban growth that once super-charged its economy”. Output of the heavily polluting steel, cement and glass industries fell in June, driven by China’s ongoing housing industry slump, according to Bloomberg, although it noted “hot weather” had limited construction activity.
Captured
China’s energy-related investment and construction in “belt and road initiative” member states during the first half of 2025 (H1 2025) has already exceeded similar “engagement” in the whole of 2024, according to a new report. Clean-energy engagement in H1 2025 – particularly solar, wind and waste-to-energy – “reached new records” compared to the same period in previous years. Report author Prof Christoph Nedopil Wang told Carbon Brief that high oil and gas activity was “mostly explained by a single large gas-related construction project in Nigeria”, with clean-energy power outweighing fossil fuels in terms of newly added generation capacity.
Spotlight
Chinese clean-tech exports to cut emissions equal to Spain’s footprint
New analysis for Carbon Brief by Lauri Myllyvirta, senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, finds that the low-carbon technologies exported by China in 2024 alone could cut emissions overseas by 220m tonnes of carbon dioxide (MtCO2), roughly equivalent to Spain’s total annual CO2 output.
This issue features an abridged version of the analysis, which is available in full on Carbon Brief’s website.
China’s output of clean-energy technologies is enabling rapid deployment around the world, but their production is energy- and carbon-intensive.
Nevertheless, these clean-tech exports are having immediate global climate benefits – contradicting many commentaries linking China’s clean-tech boom to the sharp rise in its emissions.
Specifically, manufacturing clean-energy equipment for export resulted in an estimated 110MtCO2 of emissions in 2024, or just 1.1% of China’s CO2 from fossil fuels. Yet the solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles (EVs) and wind turbines exported in 2024 will avoid an estimated 220MtCO2 annually when put into operation overseas.
Moreover, these products will continue to generate emissions savings for as long as they continue operating, avoiding a cumulative total of 4bn tons of CO2 across their lifetime.
Looking beyond direct equipment exports, overseas clean-energy investments announced by Chinese companies in 2023-24, such as solar panel manufacturing plants, will generate another 90MtCO2 of avoided emissions per year, once the projects have been built.
In addition, overseas clean-power generation projects announced by Chinese investors in 2023-24 would save another 40MtCO2 per year.
Overseas footprint
China’s clean-energy footprint spans essentially the entire world, but in terms of resulting emission reductions, the largest destinations for China’s overseas clean-energy activity are south Asia and the Middle East and north Africa (MENA) region.
This reflects both the large volumes of Chinese clean-technology activity reaching these countries and their highly carbon-intensive power grids, which means that installing new solar panels offsets high-emissions generation, for example.
On the manufacturing side, Saudi Arabia is the main destination, with a major EV production facility, two solar factories and one for wind turbines. There are also a total of five battery manufacturing projects in Morocco and Oman.
OECD Europe is the largest destination for China’s exports and overseas manufacturing investments by value. However, relative to the volume of exports, the resulting CO2 savings are smaller than in other major destinations, due to lower carbon intensity of power generation.
Another way to look at China’s clean-energy exports and investments is to consider where they have the biggest emissions impact, relative to the total CO2 output in each region.
On a relative basis, sub-Saharan Africa stands out, in addition to MENA.
China’s clean-energy exports in 2024 alone, as well as 2023-24 investments, are set to cut annual emissions in sub-Saharan Africa by around 3% per year. This indicates a rapid uptake of solar power in the region, relative to the size of the region’s electricity systems.
Downstream opportunity
In 2024, clean-energy industries contributed more than 10% of China’s GDP for the first time, underscoring the country’s dominant role in the global manufacturing of certain low-carbon technologies and reinforcing its strategic interest in the continuation and acceleration of the global clean-energy transition.
On the surface, this dominance may suggest that other countries have limited economic opportunities in clean energy.
However, China’s involvement in global supply chains is still largely limited to exports and manufacturing, while most of the value is downstream – in project development, system integration, installation and end-user services.
For example, in 2024, China exported $177bn worth of solar panels, EVs, batteries and wind turbines.
By contrast, the downstream value of overseas clean-energy products and projects relying on Chinese components is an estimated $720bn annually, four times the value of the exported raw components.
Watch, read, listen
AIR-CON DEMAND: China’s “two new” programme could encourage more consumers to trade in their air conditioners for more energy-efficient units, reducing cooling demand by 4.1% this summer, according to a new report by thinktank Ember.
WINNING STRATEGY: Volt Rush discussed how China – and other countries – made solar energy “one of the cheapest sources of power on Earth”.
MERZ’S CHOICE: A comment by three policy experts for Dialogue Earth said Germany could become a “vital broker between Europe and China”, but must “step up” engagement with China on climate.
ENERGY SECURITY: Bashir Bayo Ojulari, head of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, spoke with Xinhua about how other developing countries are “leveraging” China’s model of clean-energy growth coupled with a “reasonable mix of hydrocarbons”.
$7.6bn
The total economic losses caused by “natural disasters” in China in the first half of 2025, Reuters said, adding that “floods caused the most damage”. Regions across China have continued to suffer from extreme heat and deadly torrential rains over the past two weeks.
New science
Unveiling deployable rooftop solar potential across Chinese cities
Nature Cities
A new study on rooftop solar photovoltaics (RPV) in China found that “only 42% of the national technical potential is realistically deployable”. The paper assessed where RPV is deployable across 367 Chinese cities, considering factors including building type, “regional characteristics” and “policy limitations”. It found that, due to “regulatory factors”, deployable RPV is mainly found in urban public and industrial buildings, particularly in western, northern and central regions. They added that “to maximise value, initial deployment should prioritise public and industrial buildings in central and southern cities”.
Role of pumped hydro storage in China’s power system decarbonisation
The Electricity Journal
Developing 120GW of pumped hydro storage (PHS) – in line with China’s target for 2030 – will be “sufficient to balance electricity supply and demand by 2050” in the country, given expected growth in energy storage battery capacity, a new study said. The authors used a “high-resolution power system planning model” to assess the role of PHS in China’s power system. They argued that batteries are “emerging as a more economical solution” for energy storage compared to PHS, adding that “over-investment in PHS could lead to unnecessary electricity price inflation”.
China Briefing is compiled by Wanyuan Song and Anika Patel, with contributions from Ushika Kidd. It is edited by Wanyuan Song and Dr Simon Evans. Please send tips and feedback to china@carbonbrief.org
The post China Briefing 24 July 2025: EU-China climate statement; World’s largest megadam; Clean-tech exports appeared first on Carbon Brief.
China Briefing 24 July 2025: EU-China climate statement; World’s largest megadam; Clean-tech exports
Mining companies are showcasing new technologies which they say could extract more lithium – a key ingredient for electric vehicle (EV) batteries – from South America’s vast, dry salt flats with lower environmental impacts.
But environmentalists question whether the expensive technology is ready to be rolled out at scale, while scientists warn it could worsen the depletion of scarce freshwater resources in the region and say more research is needed.
The “lithium triangle” – an area spanning Argentina, Bolivia and Chile – holds more than half of the world’s known lithium reserves. Here, lithium is found in salty brine beneath the region’s salt flats, which are among some of the driest places on Earth.
Lithium mining in the region has soared, driven by booming demand to manufacture batteries for EVs and large-scale energy storage.
Mining companies drill into the flats and pump the mineral-rich brine to the surface, where it is left under the sun in giant evaporation pools for 18 months until the lithium is concentrated enough to be extracted.
The technique is relatively cheap but requires vast amounts of land and water. More than 90% of the brine’s original water content is lost to evaporation and freshwater is needed at different stages of the process.
One study suggested that the Atacama Salt Flat in Chile is sinking by up to 2 centimetres a year because lithium-rich brine is being pumped at a faster rate than aquifers are being recharged.
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Lithium extraction in the region has led to repeated conflicts with local communities, who fear the impact of the industry on local water supplies and the region’s fragile ecosystem.
The lithium industry’s answer is direct lithium extraction (DLE), a group of technologies that selectively extracts the silvery metal from brine without the need for vast open-air evaporation ponds. DLE, it argues, can reduce both land and water use.
Direct lithium extraction investment is growing
The technology is gaining considerable attention from mining companies, investors and governments as a way to reduce the industry’s environmental impacts while recovering more lithium from brine.
DLE investment is expected to grow at twice the pace of the lithium market at large, according to research firm IDTechX.
There are around a dozen DLE projects at different stages of development across South America. The Chilean government has made it a central pillar of its latest National Lithium Strategy, mandating its use in new mining projects.
Last year, French company Eramet opened Centenario Ratones in northern Argentina, the first plant in the world to attempt to extract lithium solely using DLE.
Eramet’s lithium extraction plant is widely seen as a major test of the technology. “Everyone is on the edge of their seats to see how this progresses,” said Federico Gay, a lithium analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. “If they prove to be successful, I’m sure more capital will venture into the DLE space,” he said.
More than 70 different technologies are classified as DLE. Brine is still extracted from the salt flats but is separated from the lithium using chemical compounds or sieve-like membranes before being reinjected underground.
DLE techniques have been used commercially since 1996, but only as part of a hybrid model still involving evaporation pools. Of the four plants in production making partial use of DLE, one is in Argentina and three are in China.
Reduced environmental footprint
New-generation DLE technologies have been hailed as “potentially game-changing” for addressing some of the issues of traditional brine extraction.
“DLE could potentially have a transformative impact on lithium production,” the International Lithium Association found in a recent report on the technology.
Firstly, there is no need for evaporation pools – some of which cover an area equivalent to the size of 3,000 football pitches.
“The land impact is minimal, compared to evaporation where it’s huge,” said Gay.
The process is also significantly quicker and increases lithium recovery. Roughly half of the lithium is lost during evaporation, whereas DLE can recover more than 90% of the metal in the brine.
In addition, the brine can be reinjected into the salt flats, although this is a complicated process that needs to be carefully handled to avoid damaging their hydrological balance.
However, Gay said the commissioning of a DLE plant is currently several times more expensive than a traditional lithium brine extraction plant.
“In theory it works, but in practice we only have a few examples,” Gay said. “Most of these companies are promising to break the cost curve and ramp up indefinitely. I think in the next two years it’s time to actually fulfill some of those promises.”
Freshwater concerns
However, concerns over the use of freshwater persist.
Although DLE doesn’t require the evaporation of brine water, it often needs more freshwater to clean or cool equipment.
A 2023 study published in the journal Nature reviewed 57 articles on DLE that analysed freshwater consumption. A quarter of the articles reported significantly higher use of freshwater than conventional lithium brine mining – more than 10 times higher in some cases.
“These volumes of freshwater are not available in the vicinity of [salt flats] and would even pose problems around less-arid geothermal resources,” the study found.
The company tracking energy transition minerals back to the mines
Dan Corkran, a hydrologist at the University of Massachusetts, recently published research showing that the pumping of freshwater from the salt flats had a much higher impact on local wetland ecosystems than the pumping of salty brine. “The two cannot be considered equivalent in a water footprint calculation,” he said, explaining that doing so would “obscure the true impact” of lithium extraction.
Newer DLE processes are “claiming to require little-to-no freshwater”, he added, but the impact of these technologies is yet to be thoroughly analysed.
Dried-up rivers
Last week, Indigenous communities from across South America held a summit to discuss their concerns over ongoing lithium extraction.
The meeting, organised by the Andean Wetlands Alliance, coincided with the 14th International Lithium Seminar, which brought together industry players and politicians from Argentina and beyond.
Indigenous representatives visited the nearby Hombre Muerto Salt Flat, which has borne the brunt of nearly three decades of lithium extraction. Today, a lithium plant there uses a hybrid approach including DLE and evaporation pools.
Local people say the river “dried up” in the years after the mine opened. Corkran’s study linked a 90% reduction in wetland vegetation to the lithium’s plant freshwater extraction.
Pia Marchegiani, of Argentine environmental NGO FARN, said that while DLE is being promoted by companies as a “better” technique for extraction, freshwater use remained unclear. “There are many open questions,” she said.
AI and satellite data help researchers map world’s transition minerals rush
Stronger regulations
Analysts speaking to Climate Home News have also questioned the commercial readiness of the technology.
Eramet was forced to downgrade its production projections at its DLE plant earlier this year, blaming the late commissioning of a crucial component.
Climate Home News asked Eramet for the water footprint of its DLE plant and whether its calculations excluded brine, but it did not respond.
For Eduardo Gigante, an Argentina-based lithium consultant, DLE is a “very promising technology”. But beyond the hype, it is not yet ready for large-scale deployment, he said.
Strong regulations are needed to ensure that the environmental impact of the lithium rush is taken seriously, Gigante added.
In Argentina alone, there are currently 38 proposals for new lithium mines. At least two-thirds are expected to use DLE. “If you extract a lot of water without control, this is a problem,” said Gigante. “You need strong regulations, a strong government in order to control this.”
The post Efforts to green lithium extraction face scrutiny over water use appeared first on Climate Home News.
Efforts to green lithium extraction face scrutiny over water use
Climate Change
Maryland’s Conowingo Dam Settlement Reasserts State’s Clean Water Act Authority but Revives Dredging Debate
The new agreement commits $340 million in environmental investments tied to the Conowingo Dam’s long-term operation, setting an example of successful citizen advocacy.
Maryland this month finalized a $340 million deal with Constellation Energy to relicense the Conowingo Dam in Cecil County, ending years of litigation and regulatory uncertainty. The agreement restores the state’s authority to enforce water quality standards under the Clean Water Act and sets a possible precedent for dozens of hydroelectric relicensing cases nationwide expected in coming years.
Local officials see millions of dollars in tax revenue, but more than 950 residents who signed ballot petitions fear endless noise, pollution and higher electric rates.
This is the second of three articles about Michigan communities organizing to stop the construction of energy-intensive computing facilities.
A Michigan Town Hopes to Stop a Data Center With a 2026 Ballot Initiative
Efforts to green lithium extraction face scrutiny over water use
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Trump’s Avalanche of Lies
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