Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed practical co-operation on renewable energy and climate change when they met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil.
Australia is trying to attract investment in its critical mineral sector, given rich deposits of rare earths are integral to building renewable technology like batteries.
Joe Biden's flagship climate legislation promoting clean energy investment in under threat. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)
Republican Donald Trump has promised to repeal Democrat Joe Biden's flagship climate legislation promoting clean energy investment.
Mr Albanese is set to join his American and British counterparts at the G20 summit to push for stronger investment in renewable technology to combat climate change.
If the incentives were repealed, there would be global flow on economic impacts but it would also provide an opportunity for Australia to capitalise on investment in renewables and green hydrogen, Mr Albanese flagged.
There were too many moving parts to assess the impact on global conditions under Mr Trump, Industry Minister Ed Husic said, adding changes weren't "the be-all and end-all".
However, Australia remained an attractive place for overseas investment due to the abundance of wind and solar resources.
If the US Inflation Reduction Act was repealed by Mr Trump, "there will still be firms that are over there that might move to other locations where the jurisdiction is a lot more open to investment in that space", he said.
"We're in the prime position ... this is a great opportunity for us. It's not just solar and wind. I think the developments in hydrogen and battery storage and manufacture here," he told AAP.
While global factors did play a part, investors weren't approaching Australia's multibillion-dollar National Reconstruction Fund with a mindset of "we'll only come here if we're certain about what happens in the US", Mr Husic said.
Using batteries as an example, breakthrough technology from Australian minds and universities was being developed to improve battery storage, he said.
"I reckon there's a lot that we can we can get stuck into," Mr Husic said.
World leaders are gathering in Brazil for the G20 economic summit, where the implications of a capricious Trump administration paint a backdrop of economic concerns as nations look to co-operation to cement open global trade.
Mr Trump has flagged broad import tariffs, as high as 60 per cent against China, as part of his protectionist, America-first agenda.
