Renewable Energy in the Chinese News Media: A Comparative Study and Policy Implications

After decades of development, China has become the world’s largest producer, exporter and installer of solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles, as well as the world’s biggest investor in renewable energy. Communicating renewable energy issues to the public plays an important role in enhancing the wider understanding of renewables and gaining public support for the government’s energy policy. Based on a detailed analysis of media coverage in China’s general media, i.e., Guangming Daily and Economic Daily, and energy sector industrial media, i.e., the China Energy News, from 2017 to 2023, this study explores how renewable energies are communicated to the Chinese public before and after the government’s announcement of its dual carbon goals. It finds that (1) renewable energy is often discussed in the wider category of new energy in the Chinese media; (2) solar, wind and hydropower energy are most prominent; (3) economic frames dominated the coverage of the renewables, followed by political and environmental frames; (4) benefits of renewable energy are far more often represented than risks by the media, particularly in their economic and political dimensions; (5) the general media tends to show more support than the media of the energy industry does, in that it reports more returns from renewable energy; (6) since the proposal of the dual carbon goals, more political discourse has been integrated into the discourse of energy and environmental policies in the energy industrial media than in the general media. The study concludes by discussing the implications of the findings for energy policy and public understanding of renewable energy in China.