What Hannah Ritchie thinks about China
Data scientist at Our World in Data and author of Not the End of the World. Writes Sustainability by Numbers, working through energy and climate questions with the numbers in front of her, and revises in public when they say something she did not expect.
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
Hannah Ritchie did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
3 dated positions, 2025, in their own words. Our reading of what Hannah Ritchie has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Their wordsBut, China mainly dominates these markets because it has produced a long-term industrial strategy for these technologies and has honed an optimised, modern supply chain as a result.
↗Why are solar panels and batteries from China so cheap?sustainabilitybynumbers.com 2nd of 5 in this piece
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Our readingForced labour in Chinese clean-energy supply chains is real, and it is not why the goods are cheap.
Their wordsBut my point is that this is still not the reason (or is only a very small reason) why these goods from China are cheaper than elsewhere. The main driver of lower labour costs has been automation; not having a human worker at all.
↗Why are solar panels and batteries from China so cheap?sustainabilitybynumbers.com 4th of 5 in this piece
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Their wordsBut you cannot support these programs while calling out China for “cheating” for doing the same.
↗Why are solar panels and batteries from China so cheap?sustainabilitybynumbers.com 5th of 5 in this piece