By Maureen Heydt Africa is bearing the brunt of the climate crisis despite having done little to contribute to it, at 3.8 percent of global emissions. Against a backdrop of devastating floods and drought, Africa receives approximately 5 percent of global climate finance flows. Meanwhile, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine, rising levels of […]
By Christina Duran On Tuesday, November 8, 2022, the Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center hosted a webinar discussion on the diversification of Chinese overseas economic engagement for its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The webinar, as part of the Fall 2022 Global China Research Colloquium, featured Oyintarelado (Tarela) Moses, Data Analyst and Database […]
By Christina Duran China has been under international scrutiny for its loans to developing countries, while simultaneously being criticized for not playing an active role in helping countries under debt distress. Following China’s announcement in August that it would waive 23 overdue interest-free loans with maturity by the end of 2021 for 17 African countries, […]
Infrastructure financing gaps in the Global South have widened in recent years with the need for addressing connectivity bottlenecks and climate-related challenges. To achieve the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an additional $3.2 trillion or 2 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) is needed annually for sustainable infrastructure investment, and roughly $700 […]
By Christina Duran On Thursday, October, 27, the Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center hosted a webinar discussion and demonstration of the China’s Global Power (CGP) Database, 2022 update. First launched in 2020, the CGP Database tracks China’s overseas power plants financed through Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) and loans from China’s two state-owned […]
China’s ‘Going Out’ strategy and Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) launched China to be the world’s largest source of cumulative bilateral official development finance. However, in recent years, overseas development finance from China’s policy banks has declined and China’s outward finance has diversified towards other channels. One emerging and under-studied area of China’s overseas economic […]
By Yudong (Nathan) Liu On Tuesday, October 11, 2022, the Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center hosted a webinar discussion with Paulo Esteves, Coordinator of the Socio-Environmental Platform and the Global South Unit for Mediation at the BRICS Policy Center of the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro and Rebecca Ray, Senior Academic […]
By Christina Duran In September 2022, Argentina applied for membership in the BRICS group of nations (named for its original five members of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). It will become the third Latin American member, after Brazil and Uruguay, which joined in 2021. This news comes as Latin American and Caribbean countries […]
By Yudong (Nathan) Liu Through the first two decades of this century, countries in the Amazon basin have developed strategies and institutions for sustainable development, in certain instances extending rights to ‘nature’ itself through legislation and changes to national constitutions. Whether countries have followed through on their commitments is less clear, as countries have also […]
In the first decade of the 21st century, China’s rapid urbanization and investment-led growth model brought skyrocketing demand for raw commodities and an ensuing investment wave in Amazon basin countries. In the wake of this “China boom,” national governments in Amazon basin countries enacted a series of social and environmental protections, many of which were […]