Over the last two decades, Chinese banks and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have provided loans and technology for a large number of coal-fired power plants abroad. With estimated emissions of 245 Mt carbon dioxide annually and a median age of seven years, this overseas coal fleet is increasingly incompatible with host countries’ and global climate goals. […]
Remaining below 2°C global temperature warming as stipulated by the Paris Agreement requires phasing out fossil fuels in the power sector, but coal power alone has the potential to exhaust the emissions budget for 1.5°C if all plants currently planned were realized and run until the end of their expected lifetime. In fact, coal capacity […]
By Alex Clark and Cecilia Springer Chinese development finance institutions (DFIs) are not alone in providing financing for coal-fired power plants – but they have played an outsized role in funding publicly-financed plants built outside China in the last ten years. Under pressure from host countries’ climate commitments and competition from renewable power sources, early […]
As countries committed to keep warming well below 2° Celsius, with efforts to limit warming to 1.5° Celsius in the Paris Agreement, investments in the construction of coal-fired power plants have come into the spotlight. China’s policies and actions in financing coal-fired power plants overseas have received much attention in recent years after major international […]
By Arden Caroline Radford As world leaders, researchers and advocates gather in Glasgow, Scotland for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), much attention will be focused on the global phase-out of coal-fired power. While the additional climate impacts of coal fired power plants (CFPPs) on the global atmosphere are well documented, […]
In his remarks at the 76th United Nations General Assembly, Chinese leader Xi Jinping announced China “will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad,” a major step in reducing carbon emissions during a critical decade. What does this mean in terms of global climate and development goals? How will China’s announcement affect its energy finance to […]
Why have China’s two policy banks with global operations, the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China, globalized their overseas development finance for coal-fired power plants, while leading development finance institutions elsewhere have pulled back from coal and China has cut back on coal-fired power expansion at home and augmented its international commitment […]
China’s ongoing commitment to overseas infrastructure investment through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has ignited concern over environmental impacts. The BRI’s environmental impacts will be determined by China’s decisions not only on what kinds of projects to fund, but also how those projects end up operating relative to projects without Chinese involvement. It is […]
In 2019, overseas energy financing by China’s two policy banks with global operations, the China Development Bank (CDB) and the Export-Import Bank of China (CHEXIM), was at its lowest level since 2008. In a new policy brief, Xinyue Ma, Kevin P. Gallagher and Yanan Guo examine China’s global energy finance in 2019, using the China’s […]
According to World Bank research, about 1 billion people, roughly three times the population of the United States, still lack access to electricity. In poor countries where more sustainable electricity supply has the potential to foster higher economic growth, fossil fuel based power generation remains an attractive option. While multilateral development banks (MDBs) have ‘greened’ […]