GDP Center Round-Up: Spring 2022 Global China Research Colloquium
The Spring 2022 Global China Research Colloquium invited leading scholars to virtually present their latest research on topics spanning China’s application of industrial policy, debt-for-nature swaps with Ecuador, simulating the impacts of China’s clean energy transition abroad and mapping the marine risks of Chinese overseas development finance. Zhu Xian started the year off with a discussion on the role of industrial policy and its application in China, followed by Carlos Larrea’s presentation on opportunities for debt-for-nature swaps between Ecuador and China. In March, Ian Kieffer and Ian Sue Wing from the Department of Earth and the Environment at Boston University presented forthcoming research on China’s clean energy transition abroad. The April session featured a team of researchers from the University of Indonesia to discuss the social and environmental risks of select BRI projects in Indonesia. Rounding off the series, Blake Alexander Simmons of Colorado State University presented forthcoming research on the risks of China’s global coastal development to marine socio-ecological systems.
Below, see a summary and recording for each session in the Spring 2022 Global China Research Colloquium:
The Role of Industrial Policy: A Discussion Through its Application in China
Kicking off the series in January, Zhu Xian, Vice President and Secretary General of International Finance Forum and former Vice President and Chief Operations Officer of the New Development Bank, led a discussion on the role of industrial policy and its application in China. Adopted systematically by mostly East Asian economies, industrial policy is a tool of state intervention in managing economies that has been controversial in the context of development economics since World War II.
During the discussion, Zhu shared observations of recent practices of industrial policy as it has been applied in China. The discussion sought to enhance understanding of Chinese decision-makers’ fundamental logic and motivations, especially at local levels, and advance discussion of the pros and cons of industrial policy in practice. Read the webinar blog summary.
Financing Tropical Conservation: Debt-for-Nature Proposals for Ecuador and China
Ecuador, one of the world’s most biodiverse countries, faces a triple challenge of countering Amazonian deforestation, while public funds have largely been committed to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and repaying large amounts of external debt. Amid this fiscal crunch, how can Ecuador’s policymakers prioritize a shift to sustainable finance?
In February, Carlos Larrea, Research Professor in Social Sciences at Ecuador’s Simón Bolívar Andean University, bridged these fiscal and environmental concerns in a webinar discussion on financing tropical conservation in Ecuador with debt-for-nature swaps. Larrea presented two different innovative possibilities for greening Ecuador’s debt crunch: one that promises to dramatically reduce deforestation in the Ecuadorian Amazon over the next ten years, and another that promotes local investments, like protecting the Colonso Chalupas Biological Reserve and strengthening the conservation research capacity of the Ikiam Amazon Regional University. In all, Larrea highlighted how debt-for-nature swaps could be a powerful policy tool amid the converging climate, public health and fiscal crises. Read the webinar blog summary.
Simulating the Impacts of China’s Clean Energy Transition Abroad
Next up in March, Ian Kieffer, Global China Research Fellow with the Boston University Global Development Policy Center, and Ian Sue Wing, Professor with the Department of Earth and the Environment at Boston University, presented forthcoming research on China’s clean energy transition abroad.
In recent years, China has grown to be one of the largest providers of outward power development globally through its growing global shares of foreign direct investment (FDI) and development bank finance. Until Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s September 2021 announcement that China “will not build new coal-fired power plants abroad,” China was also one of the few countries that would still support overseas construction of coal-fired power plants. In the forthcoming study, Kieffer, Sue Wing and Cecilia Springer use a multi-region, multi-sector computable general equilibrium model to assess the potential impact of Xi’s proclamation on global CO2 emissions. Read the webinar blog summary.
A Spatial Environmental Assessment of Select Belt and Road Initiative Projects in Indonesia
Chinese FDI in Indonesia has increased dramatically since 2013 when the BRI was announced. In April, researchers from the University of Indonesia, Albertus Hadi Pramono, Masita Dwi Mandini Manessa, Mochamad Indrawan and Dwi Amalia Sari, joined for a presentation on the spatial environmental assessment of select BRI projects in Indonesia.
To date, the dominant BRI investments in Indonesia have been in infrastructure development, power plant construction and mineral extraction and processing. In a recent collaboration with the Boston University Global Development Policy Center, the Research Center for Climate Change at the University of Indonesia conducted a spatial environmental assessment of 14 clusters of BRI projects throughout Indonesia. The research project seeks to understand the environmental and social impacts of the projects by focusing on a project’s distance from primary forest, trends of vegetation and carbon loss, emission of nitrous oxide (NOx) as a dangerous air pollutant, the presence of selected endangered species and the presence of affected Indigenous Peoples. Read the webinar blog summary.
Mapping the Risks of China’s Global Coastal Development to Marine Socio-Ecological Systems
Closing out the series in May, Blake Alexander Simmons, Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources at Colorado State University, presented forthcoming research mapping the risks of China’s global coastal development to marine socio-ecological systems. As rapid coastal development presents substantial risks to marine habitats, biodiversity and coastal communities dependent upon vital marine ecosystem services, the study investigates the extent to which coastal development projects financed by Chinese development finance institutions present both direct and indirect risks to marine habitats, threatened species, marine protected areas and coastal Indigenous communities. Noting that China is now the world’s largest bilateral creditor of overseas development finance, Simmons discussed where risks are greatest and how this knowledge can be used to create an agenda for “blue-ing” China’s overseas development finance portfolio. Read the blog summary.
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