Australia will seek to exploit Donald Trump's plans to slash government investment in the green energy sector, in the hope it could see billions of dollars of private money redirected away from the United States.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is using a week-long trip to South America to pitch Australia as a safe and reliable country to invest in, especially if the incoming US president follows through on his climate threats.

The so-called Inflation Reduction Act was one of Democrat Joe Biden's signature policies as president, seeking to turn the US into a clean energy superpower, with a particular focus on domestic manufacturing.

But Trump has threatened to repeal that legislation, a move that analysts have warned could free up US$80 billion ($123 billion) in investment opportunities for other countries.

Mr Albanese said that would present an opportunity for Australia given its position as a resource-rich middle power.

"The Inflation Reduction Act, for example, is seeing considerable capital flow to the United States," Mr Albanese told reporters in Lima, Peru, ahead of the two-day APEC summit.

"If those incentives aren't there, then that has implications for the nature of the global economy.

"But we don't pre-empt that."

Mr Albanese will spruik Australia's credentials to business leaders ahead of formal talks with Pacific-rim countries, including China, the US, Canada, Japan and Indonesia.

"We see that Australia has great opportunity through climate action," Mr Albanese told reporters.

"We see that it's important for our environment, but I also see it as about economic opportunity.

"We have all of the resources under the ground that will drive the global economy in the 21st century — copper, vanadium, cobalt, lithium."

Mr Albanese held meetings with the leaders of Indonesia and Peru, as the leaders of China, the US and Canada arrived in Lima.

In both meetings, he spoke of the need to bolster trade throughout the region — offering a stark contrast to Mr Trump's position on trade.

Mr Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet on the sidelines of the APEC summit on Saturday, local time, where the US president hopes he can ease growing tension between the two superpowers.

Trump is threatening to impose a 60 per cent tariff on Chinese imports into the US, which could send ripples through economies around the globe.

Leaders at the APEC summit, and next week's G20 meeting in Brazil, are widely expected to seek to try and ring-fence global trade and climate targets in a bid to buffer them from Trump's return to the White House.

They are also closely watching Mr Xi to see if China will try and fill any void left by the US withdrawal from the global community under Trump.

In his meeting with Mr Albanese, new Indonesian President Probowo Subianto spoke of the need to "de-escalate" and "lower the temperature" in relations with China throughout the Indo-Pacific.

Along with bolstering military cooperation and trade, the president said Australia and Indonesia needed to continue to work closely to tackle people smuggling.

While the US accounts for a quarter of global trade, Mr Albanese was at pains to tell reporters that relationships with China, India and Indonesia would be just as important to Australia's future.

"Increasingly, population will be a driver of economic growth. And that's why countries in our region, such as China, but also Indonesia, India and other nations, will have considerable economic growth in the future," he said.

"And that's why Australia is well positioned as a country that is located in the fastest growing region of the world in human history. That represents opportunity."

Australia is yet to announce a formal meeting between Mr Albanese and Mr Xi during their visits to South America but it is increasingly looking likely in the coming days.

"We'll make announcements at appropriate times," Mr Albanese told reporters.