Tag: cecilia han springer

Growing Momentum for Coal Phase-Down in the Global South: Lessons from Pakistan

By Rishikesh Ram Bhandary and Cecilia Han Springer Although Chinese leader Xi Jinping announced last year that China will no longer build new coal-fired power plants overseas, the Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center’s China’s Global Power (CGP) Database shows 60 coal plants around the world that have received Chinese development finance or foreign […]

China’s Withdrawal from Overseas Coal in Context

China has played a significant role in enabling overseas coal-fired power plant development through the provision of capital and construction services. Following Xi Jinping’s announcement in September 2021 that China would no longer build new coal-fired power projects abroad, the potential scope of affected capacity remains unclear. In a new World Development Perspectives article, Cecilia […]

The Effect of Foreign Investment on Asian Coal Power Plants

Generating 38.5 percent of the global electricity supply, coal-fired power plants are the largest contributors to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the power sector. The development of these plants represents the tradeoffs and tensions between expanding and improving electricity supply, while reducing CO2 emissions, as embodied in the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Goal […]

GDP Center Round Up: UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) – Week One

By Maureen Heydt From October 31-November 12, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, will take place in Glasgow, Scotland. The summit seeks to bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. World leaders, policymakers, researchers, journalists, activists […]

Lights On: The State of International Development Finance, Coal and Green Energy

On October 31, 2021, the Group of 20 (G20) made a historic announcement by committing to end finance for coal-fired power plants overseas. The G20 pledge caps a year of major sustainable finance pledges from national governments and their development finance institutions (DFIs) since the inaugural 2020 Finance in Common Summit, where DFIs pledged to […]

GDP Center Round Up: UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) – Week Two

By Maureen Heydt From October 31-November 12, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, will take place in Glasgow, Scotland. The summit seeks to bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. World leaders, policymakers, researchers, journalists, activists […]

Shining a Light on China’s Uneven Regional Energy Development Overseas

By Cecilia Han Springer Although it is a massive infrastructure and connectivity program at the global scale, China’s Belt and Road Initiative does not reach all host countries equally. Regional patterns in concentration and type of projects mean that these host countries will experience the benefits – and impacts – of China’s outward investment differently. […]

China’s Uneven Regional Energy Investments

In the lead-up to the first Belt and Road forum in May 2017, China published three official documents emphasizing that its investment projects will be used to promote the Paris Climate Agreement and 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and are motivated by the need to “share the ecological civilization philosophy and achieve sustainable development.” Despite what […]