China could replace the US as the world’s dominant energy power as Donald Trump’s trade war rattles American oil producers and Beijing extends its cleantech lead, analysts have warned.
The US president announced an aggressive new tariff regime earlier this month that sent oil prices sharply lower, and has also moved to kill the previous Biden administration’s drive to build a domestic cleantech industry to compete with China.
The tariffs could make it harder for US oil producers to compete in its “most attractive export markets”, said a report from consultancy Wood Mackenzie, while the country was also being “significantly outpaced” by China in technologies such as lithium-ion batteries, electric vehicles and solar cells.