The What and What? What? Just a Chinese plan, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that could provide about half the renewable energy that the whole world needs, across all of Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. As part of taking over the world, of course.
Study examines 7.8 TW solar potential of the Belt and Road route
China’s vast continent-spanning infrastructure project could fertilize solar growth along its perimeter at considerable scale as energy demand in the countries along the route is set to surge.
Oh. Well, maybe, if they stick to those principles. OK, so how would it work in reality?
There's always a catch. One such is the debt trap, well known in poor countries. Another is known as
Promises, promises
Overview
Wikipedia: The Belt and Road Initiative
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a global development strategy adopted by the Chinese government involving infrastructure development and investments in 152 countries and international organizations in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas.[1]"Belt" refers to the overland routes for road and rail transportation, called "the Silk Road Economic Belt"; whereas "road" refers to the sea routes, or the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.[2]
It was known as the One Belt One Road (OBOR) (Chinese: 一带一路) and the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road (Chinese: 丝绸之路经济带和21世纪海上丝绸之路)[3] until 2016 when the Chinese government considered the emphasis on the word "one" was prone to misinterpretation.[4]
The Chinese government calls the initiative "a bid to enhance regional connectivity and embrace a brighter future".[5] Some observers see it as a push for Chinese dominance in global affairs with a China-centered trading network.[6][7] The project has a targeted completion date of 2049,[8] which coincides with the 100th anniversary of the People's Republic of China
Debate: What China’s new Silk Road means for Europe
In a debate last month in Warsaw, politicians, bankers and businessmen considered the implications for Europe of China's Belt and Road Initiative – likely to be Eurasia's largest infrastructure project in this century. It is both an economic opportunity and a portent of growing Chinese preeminence on the continent.
CBC.ca
China is financing hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of infrastructure projects — including ports, roads, bridges, railways, power plants, telecommunications networks and much more — in partnering countries throughout Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond.
The purpose, China says, is to accelerate and enhance development and trade in order to create new markets and opportunities for China and its partners.
The World Bank predicts that, if completed, Belt and Road projects could reduce travel times along the corridors 12 per cent, increase trade between 2.7 and 9.7 per cent, and lift 7.6 million people out of extreme poverty.
But the World Bank also says the policy carries potential risks, particularly for developing countries that may find themselves with unmanageable debt.
Christian Science Monitor
Duisburg is now an important terminus on China’s sprawling “Belt and Road” development program, and welcomes 35-40 trains from China each week. The city’s mayor has courted Chinese investors, and at least 60 Chinese companies have opened shop there.
Yet this raises questions whether Duisburg – dubbed by local media as “Germany’s Chinese city” – is opening itself up to ethical compromises or reputational risk by so openly welcoming Chinese investment. The pressure Beijing exerts on foreign entities is increasing, at a time surveys show the German public is increasingly negative on Chinese investment. What price is paid to engage with China?
Space Daily
The main users of Gaofen-7 are from the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the National Bureau of Statistics.
China has an urgent need for 1:10,000-scale surveying and mapping data, as the country undergoes rapid economic development, drastic changes in urban and rural structure, a sharp reduction in farmland and frequent natural disasters.
Gaofen-7 will help solve problems in monitoring geographical conditions, housing and urban-rural construction and national statistics, Cao said.
It might serve major national projects, planning and economic construction. For example, development of the Xiong'an New area, the selection of venue sites of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and key projects along the Belt and Road all need high-precision surveying and mapping data for decision-making.
The Maritime Executive
Iran has instead looked to China. Beijing has continued importing oil from Iran, despite the sanctions reimposed by the U.S. last year. Iran has also showed interest in building an LNG pipeline to China along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the flagship project of China’s One Belt One Road initiative.
Nikkei Asian Review
More recently it has turned to China to reduce that reliance and soak up Belt and Road ... in early November after New Delhi issued a new "political map," which ...
Nikkei Asian Review
TOKYO -- A U.S.-led scheme to counter China's Belt and Road ... Blue Dot, piecing together a global map of quality infrastructure undertakings.
Financial Times
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The Interpreter
Iran has also showed interest in building an LNG pipeline to China along the ... (CPEC), the flagship project of China's One Belt One Road initiative.
Energy
China Dialogue
Belt and Road countries will make or break the Paris Agreement
Chinese investments are driving higher carbon emissions pathways in Belt and Road nations, a new report finds
If a 2C path is to be realised, the report identifies a green investment gap totalling nearly US$12 trillion across Belt and Road countries by 2030.
Corporate Knights Magazine
China’s continued pursuit of coal is increasingly out of step with the rest of the world, and is now effectively driving the ongoing expansion of the global coal fleet,” according to San Fransisco-based Global Energy Monitor.
GEM says that recent growth comes courtesy of “a brief but massive spree of project permitting that occurred from September 2014 to March 2016, a period when the central government delegated permitting to provincial authorities who had strong incentives to approve and build coal plants to hit province-level economic targets.”
Even then, those coal numbers overlook the scores of countries in Asia, Africa and South America that are building industrial economies – and they won’t be restrained by climate threats they had no part in creating.
This disconnect haunts a recent study examining the 126 countries participating in China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – a $12-trillion portfolio of Chinese-funded infrastructure programs ranging from dams and ports to roads and high-speed railways.
The report sets out five recommendations for reducing carbon in the Belt and Road map:
- Establish an international platform, possibly hosted by the U.N., to support intensive development of green finance mechanisms across BRI countries.
- Extend China’s domestic “green” standards to its BRI investments. This would include applying the same mandatory environmental assessments as China requires in domestic projects.
- Promote the adoption of green investment principles by global investors. (This process has already begun, based on a protocol of Green Investment Principles agreed to by China and the U.K. But more countries need to sign on.)
- Improve disclosure of the climate impact of BRI projects.
- Build a coalition among existing international green-finance initiatives, to more effectively advance low-carbon, climate-resilient investments.
chinadialogue
At the second Belt and Road forum earlier this year, Chinese leaders stressed the BRI should have a “green undertone”.
China’s Energy Research Institute has proposed a “2C Asia” initiative to survey energy supply and demand in Asian nations, and work with them to decarbonise energy systems and meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Jiang Kejun leads the research group behind 2C Asia. He believes that China’s foreign aid needs to be better targeted and that funding for the initiative could come from the South–South Climate Cooperation Fund, set up in 2015, or the China Clean Development Mechanism Fund, which currently supports low-carbon growth domestically.
Forbes
As China’s ‘Belt And Road’ Initiative Replaces U.S. On Global Stage, The Implications For Energy And Trade
Coal now supplies 59% of China’s energy mix but natural gas is expected to replace much of that over time. Already the percentage of coal has fallen and its air quality has vastly improved over the last five years. China is also working on advanced nuclear generation and increasing its percentage of renewable fuels. Its goal is to reach net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050 and net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2070.
How China can become the world leader for solving climate change | TheHill
The need for leadership toward achieving tangible climate change solutions has never been greater.
This provides an enormous chance for China, the largest economy and carbon emitter, to live up to its rhetoric and announce concrete steps towards meaningful emissions reduction. Four years ago, China took such a leadership position at the global climate talks by eschewing decades old political divisions over developed and developing country responsibilities and putting concrete emissions targets on the table. This year, China has an opportunity to take bold action once again. The following are four steps China can take to become a world leader on climate change.
- China should double down on its domestic commitments.
- China should raise the standards for its international spending.
Through its Belt and Road Initiative, China has been a dominant presence in infrastructure project development abroad for much of the 21st century, particularly in the emissions substantive energy sector. Even as it receives praise for cutting back coal power generation and investing in renewable energy capacity domestically, Chinese development banks have financed a quarter of a trillion dollars worth of new fossil fuel investments abroad, a quarter of which use coal, the worst polluting fuel, locking developing countries into this major carbon emitting source for decades to come.
- China should engage in meaningful multilateralism with regard to its development investments abroad.
- China should grow its green finance portfolio.
Yet there are many other parts of the world where coal still makes the best economic sense for a variety of reasons, including lack of access to renewable technology and the funds to invest in it.
Enter China’s Belt and Road Initiative ...
One Belt, One Road, Powered with Coal
126 countries. " data-reactid="18">The Belt and Road Initiative is an ambitious international investment program devised by Beijing that involves infrastructure projects worth a total of $12 trillion and spanning as many as 126 countries.
Most of these are developing countries and many have yet to join the renewable crusade against climate change. But coal is widely available and cheap, so it will power the industrialization of these countries with China’s financial help.
China.org.cn
Investment in China on renewable energy accounts for 45% of total global investment in this regard. Already, China has surpassed all other nations to become by far the world's largest producer, exporter and installer of wind turbines, solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicles.
Additionally, China launched a Green Development Coalition along with the other stakeholders under the Belt and Road Initiative in April this year, which is in line with the United Nation's sustainable development goals of 2030 and based on the principle of "construction and sharing."
Government puff piece, of course.
The company is the highest profile casualty of a change in policy that is being felt across the renewable energy sector in a country once celebrated as the world’s clean energy champion. Chinese investment in clean energy is plummeting — down from $76bn during the first half of 2017, to $29bn during the first half of this year.
On paper, China’s climate targets have not changed: Beijing has pledged that its carbon dioxide emissions will peak by 2030, and that it will draw 20 per cent of its primary energy from non-fossil sources by that same date. Yet that promise would allow China to keep increasing its emissions for the next decade, with devastating implications for the planet. Its investments in the Belt and Road Initiative, under which state banks have earmarked more than $30bn to build coal-fired power plants in other countries, is also adding to global emissions.
pv magazine International
Chinese trade visit presages big investment in Greece’s energy infrastructure
Beijing already owns 24% of Greece’s electricity transmission system operator and has pledged to back a new Greece-EU funded interconnector to Crete which is set to open up more possibilities for solar on the island. The arrival of two of China’s biggest lenders also offers the prospect of new investment in renewables.
This week it was the turn of Chinese president Xi Jinping to visit Greece, following a trip by counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis the other way last week, as a delegate at the China International Import Expo 2019 where the two leaders met up.
With China keen to expand its influence in Europe as part of its continent-spanning Belt and Road infrastructure project, and with Chinese state-owned shipping company Cosco owning a majority stake in the major shipping port of Piraeus, Xi’s two-day visit heralded the signing of 16 trade deals and memoranda of understanding.
Though PV was absent from the list of subjects directly addressed by representatives from the two nations’ business communities, the solar industry is expected to be among the beneficiaries from two developments that emerged from the state visit.
The Diplomat
Trump’s latest tariff threat will likely push Argentina, already economically fragile, further into China’s arms.
Despite increasing tensions between Washington and Beijing, Macri built friendly relationships with both powers. He was welcomed with open arms at international fora like the G-20 and the World Economic Forum in Davos. In May 2017, Macri attended the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing. Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed him by proclaiming that “Latin America is the natural extension of the 21st century Maritime Silk Road” while applauding Argentina’s support and participation in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). As of 2018 there were over 50 Chinese companies operating in Argentina, including Huawei, ZTE, Shanghai SVA, China TCL Group, Nanjing Jincheng, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and the People’s Bank of China.
China and Argentina have a number of joint development projects underway as part of the BRI, which are helping to energize local economies in various provinces. For instance, Chinese companies are helping construct South America’s largest solar farm in the northwestern province of Jujuy and wind farms in the provinces of Buenos Aires and Chubut, with an eye to boosting renewable energy and contributing to combating climate change. As a sign of the importance of these economic ties, Macri, who at one point seemed about to pull the plug on Chinese-financed power plants, had little choice but to allow construction to go forward while he campaigned for re-election in October.