AdvertisementChina-Africa relationsChinaDiplomacy
How China’s green tech is undercutting Trump’s ‘drill, baby, drill’ oil strategy in Africa
3-MIN READ3-MIN
Dulue MbachuPublished: 12:00pm, 7 Sep 2026
Cost appears to be a deciding factor for most African countries when it comes to energy as they observe the factors that influence US and Chinese policy decisions.
In a sign of the contrasting energy strategies pursued by Washington and Beijing, US President Donald Trump says “drill, baby, drill” while China drives a leap towards renewable energy.
With China’s advances in solar generation and battery technologies making acquisitions cheaper, a consensus is coalescing across the continent around renewables.
“Africa’s solar revolution is here,” said Sonia Dunlop, CEO of the Global Solar Council (GSC). “Growth is spreading to new markets across the continent, and rooftop and distributed systems are putting power directly into the hands of households and businesses.”
09:10Can the Middle East war turbocharge China’s global EV ambitions?
Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East had delivered “two major fossil fuel supply shocks in four years” that “exposed the brutal cost of energy dependence”, Dunlop noted. But cheap solar and improved battery storage had enabled the rapid replacement of fossil fuels with solar power across Africa, she said.
AdvertisementSelect VoiceSelect Speed00:0000:001.00x