Unintended consequence of US president’s actions will be boon for China, the leading renewables manufacturer

Operation Epic Fury has thus far achieved none of Donald Trump’s war aims, but it may well accelerate the global transition towards the clean energy he loves to hate.

Last week brought the latest exchange of verbal blows in the standoff over the strait of Hormuz. Iran is “choking like a stuffed pig” on the oil it is unable to export because of the US blockade, Trump claimed.

From Tehran, the supreme leader shot back that foreigners who “maliciously covet” the waterway, “have no place there except at the bottom of its waters”. To the rest of the world, the exchange raised the spectre of a prolonged impasse.

Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency’s energy crisis tracker now lists almost 40 countries that have taken emergency action in the face of soaring oil and gas prices, from Lao shortening the school week to three days to Nepal calling for cooking gas cylinders to be half filled.