Billionaire Gautam Adani said China will feel increasingly isolated as rising nationalism, shifting supply chains and technological constraints threaten the world’s second-largest economy. Gautam Adani is the third-richest man in the world. The property market meltdown there has drawn comparisons with what happened to Japan during the lost decade of the 1990s, he added.
While I expect all these economies will readjust over time — and bounce back — the friction to the bounce-back looks far harder this time, he said. Adani’s comments on China and the global economy come at a time when the port-to-energy tycoon is trying to raise his international profile by over $58 billion in personal wealth this year.
Central banks are doing the “unthinkable” by raising interest rates so high they can send an economy into recession, he said. He was also responding to criticism of India’s plans to increase the amount of energy it produces from fossil fuels.”Critics want us to immediately get rid of all the fossil fuel sources that India needs to feed a large population,” he said. “That would not work for India.
Adani’s conglomerate is focusing its resources on renewable energy, and the billionaire reiterated plans to invest $70 billion in the transition.At the same time, Adani has come under pressure from environmental groups, who say his energy ambitions include funding new coal mines and fossil-fuel power plants. The tycoon’s comments echo those of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who blames climate change on historic emissions from the developed world and whose mission is to bring electricity to all Indian homes, which requires cheap fuel. Despite being the third-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, India will add nearly 56 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity unless the cost of storing electricity is significantly reduced as the government prioritizes economic growth and reliable electricity supply, Energy Minister Raj Kumar Singh told Bloomberg News this month.
India is also planning to invest in renewable energy, Singh said. India, which saw a surge in energy demand this summer as temperatures hit record highs, is also delaying the closure of older coal-fired power plants and increasing production by miners.
