China will open its energy conservation and environmental protection industries to foreign and private investment, Premier Li Keqiang at a meeting in Beijing. Li’s remarks may signal a change in China’s approach to the clean-energy sector, which has used government subsidies to create national champions and been criticized as protectionist in nature. He told foreign members of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development that China is willing to work with the international community to strengthen technology and other forms of cooperation to improve the environment. “We encourage private capital to enter the field,” the China Daily quoted Li as saying. At present, foreign companies can invest in equipment manufacturing but can only have limited stakes in clean-energy projects like wind farms. “We also hope China’s energy conservation and environmental protection products will enter the overseas market, and we will open the industry to the international market”, Premier Li Keqiang said. The government’s strategy of using subsidies to create national champions in wind and solar energy was partly successful in that it spawned some of the world’s largest manufacturers of solar panels and wind turbines, but it also created an investment glut as local governments rushed to jump on the investment bandwagon. Many solar power and wind farms remain disconnected from the main power grid, and the country still remains overwhelmingly dependent on domestic coal and imported fossil fuels.