When Wall Street legend Warren Buffet makes an investment, people usually notice. But when Buffet last year took a 10 per cent stake in BYD, a small Chinese battery and electric car company, the deal passed without much fanfare.

Since then, investor interest in the People's Republic has exploded. Environmental analyst New Energy Finance has tracked about 30 global clean energy funds, with an estimated $3.5bn under management, that are targeting China as a prime investment region. New deals in clean energy projects, including biomass, solar, wind and waste-to-energy, jumped 46 per cent between the second and third quarters to $5bn, and were up 20 per cent over 2008.

PwC predicts China's clean technology industry could be worth $1,000bn by 2013, equal to 15 per cent of the country's forecasted economic wealth.