America stands at a dangerous crossroads in the global race for green technology supremacy. While European nations surge ahead with coordinated multi-trillion dollar investments and China dominates manufacturing with record-breaking deployment, the United States appears to be deliberately undermining its own competitive position just as the clean energy market reaches a historic inflection point.
Greentechishigh tech,too
EmpoweringProgresswithTechnology
Business leaders in Europe often bemoan how “behind” it is in the global tech race. At the same time, Americans have taken their leadership in technology for granted, to the point at which we treat the founders and investors in tech companies like demi-gods, even as life for many ordinary people has gotten worse.
Thenumberstella starkstory
TailoredSolutionsfortheDigitalAge
China invested close to $680 billion in clean tech manufacturing in 2024, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). That's almost as much as the United States and the E.U. combined.
It continues to lead the world in wind and solar, as one analysis found, “Between March 2023 and March 2024, China installed more solar than it had in the previous three years combined, and more than the rest of the world combined for 2023.”
Europe's coordinated advance
BuiltforPerformanceandScalability
The EU is quietly executing a masterclass in strategic industrial policy.
The European Commission has pledged to mobilize at least €1 trillion in sustainable investments to finance the European Green Deal. Remarkably, this is a systematic approach combining public investment, regulatory frameworks, and private capital mobilization.
China'soverwhelmingdominance
China’sdominance
China's position is even more formidable. The country is rewriting the rules of industrial competition. Installed solar and wind power capacity climbed 45.2% and 18%, respectively, in 2024, while between March 2023 and March 2024, China installed more solar than it had in the previous three years combined, and more than the rest of the world combined for 2023.
But China's true advantage lies in supply chain control. Last year China refined three-quarters of the world's cobalt and 91 percent of its graphite. It also produced 92 percent of all processed rare earth elements, the hard-to-extract metals used widely in high-tech manufacturing.
Astrategic inflectionpoint
CollaborationThatDrivesImpact
A strategic inflection point emerges when changes in the external environment shift the realm of what’s possible, opening the door to previously inconceivable business models and activities. The leading indicators of the coming change are economic, technological and geopolitical, creating the potential for perfect storm.
TowardagreenGoldenAge
Skilled,Passionate,Driven
The window for American leadership isn't closed, but it's narrowing rapidly. This isn't about ideology it's about economic competitiveness in one of the fastest-growing sectors of the global economy.
