With its wind and solar farms and brightly lit megacities, China is becoming known as an ‘electrostate’. In this regard – as in many others – it stands in stark contrast to the US, the world’s leading producer of oil and gas. The slogan ‘Drill, baby, drill!’ echoed through Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Renewables or fossil fuels, electricity or oil – the clash between Beijing and Washington seems to be shaping the two superpowers’ energy strategies. At the UN General Assembly in September, Trump called climate change ‘the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world’ and warned his audience, ‘If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail.’ Xi Jinping, his Chinese counterpart, retorted that the ‘green and low-carbon transition is the trend of our time.’ Even if some countries are ‘acting against it, the international community should stay focused on the right direction.’

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