Jacob Bor is a founding and core faculty member of the Human Capital Initiative (HCI) at the Global Development Policy Center. The HCI brings an interdisciplinary team of researchers together across Boston University to contribute to the advancement of innovative research on the political economy of human development. He is an Assistant Professor in the […]
The China’s Global Energy Finance Database, compiled and updated annually by Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center, is an interactive data project that exhibits financing for global energy projects by China’s two global policy banks—the China Development Bank (CDB) and the Export-Import Bank of China (CHEXIM). In February 2021, the database was updated with 2020 […]
By Jessica DiCarlo While investment in infrastructure offers certain benefits, it also poses social, environmental, and human rights risks—such as pollution, displacement, loss of livelihoods, or various modes of insecurity. As more countries turn to China for development and infrastructure finance, the question of how Chinese institutions will improve and ensure social and environmental safeguards […]
In a new working paper, Global China Initiative Fellow Yunnan Chen examines the railway sector in Ethiopia and discusses the implications of local decision-making on technology, skills transfer, and Chinese contractors. Following the international surge of Chinese capital and companies in the last decade and the rise of the Belt and Road Initiative, many African […]
On Weds., Feb. 3, the Global Development Policy (GDP) Center hosted a webinar discussion and interactive demonstration of its latest research on opportunities debt-for-climate and debt-for-nature swaps with China. The research includes a journal article published in Science, a blog summary of the methodology and main findings, as well as an a new interactive tool […]
By Blake Alexander Simmons In response to President Joe Biden’s recent executive order committing to protect at least 30 percent of the United States’ lands and waters by 2030 (30×30), researchers from the Global Development Policy Center, the Boston University Department of Earth and Environment, and The Nature Conservancy released a new working paper highlighting […]
In a new journal article published in Science, research by Blake Alexander Simmons, Rebecca Ray, Hongbo Yang and Kevin P. Gallagher explores opportunities for China to alleviate debt burdens in exchange for debtor nation commitments to climate change mitigation and/or adaptation and environmental protection through “debt-for-climate” and “debt-for-nature” swaps. Many developing countries are experiencing mounting […]
By Xinyue Ma According to estimates of China’s Global Power (CGP) Database compiled by the Global Development Policy Center, China’s fossil fuel power plants are currently leading to approximately 314 million tons (Mt) of CO2emissions per year, which is about 3.5 percent of the annual CO2 emission from the global power sector outside of China. […]
By Pedro Henrique Batista Barbosa Since 2010, when the first Chinese investment in Brazil’s electricity sector happened, China’s presence in the Brazilian electricity sector has expanded considerably in a relatively short period of time. Through a combination of mergers and acquisitions (M&A, or brownfield investments) and greenfield foreign direct investments (GFDI) and benefiting from an […]
In a new working paper, Pedro Henrique Batista Barbosa examines the Chinese investments and loans in Brazil’s electric sector, more specifically in hydro, wind, solar, coal, biomass, oil and nuclear power segments from their onset in mid-2000s until 2019. Chinese presence in the Brazilian electricity sector has increased consistently and significantly in three aspects: investments, […]