by Julie Radomski As countries around the world strive to meet their renewable energy targets, large hydroelectric dams are often framed as clean and reliable alternatives to fossil fuels. In the 21st century, Chinese development finance institutions (DFIs) have emerged as global leaders in financing hydropower, although many of these projects have faced severe environmental […]
Hydroelectric megaprojects represent an important target for Chinese development finance in the 21st century and will likely remain so given their categorization as renewable energy contributing to a green energy transition. However, Chinese-financed megadams around the world have faced numerous social, environmental and political challenges. These challenges not only inhibit the opportunity for the projects […]
Por Zara C. Albright Entre 2008 y 2019, los países de América Latina suscribieron $132 mil millones de créditos de las instituciones chinas para el financiamiento de desarrollo (IFDs) y $155 mil millones del Banco Mundial, incluso las ventanillas del Banco Internacional para la Reconstrucción de Desarrollo y de la Asociación Internacional para el Desarrollo. […]
By Zara C. Albright Between 2008-2019, Latin American (LAC) countries borrowed $132 billion from Chinese development finance institutions (DFIs) and $155 billion from the World Bank, including its International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Association (IDA) windows. Figure 1 illustrates the region’s borrowing patterns; LAC countries have consistently borrowed higher numbers […]
Between 2008-2019, Latin American (LAC) countries borrowed $132 billion from Chinese development finance institutions (DFIs) and $155 billion from the World Bank. Over 20 LAC countries have become signatories of China’s Belt and Road Initiative since its inception. Additionally, LAC was the first region that United States officials visited to promote the US’s own infrastructure […]
Overseas development finance plays a pivotal role in China’s expanding global engagement. Existing scholarship portrays Chinese capital as “patient,” due to its higher tolerance of risk compared to Western capital, which prioritizes short-term gains. In a new working paper, David Landry and Keyi Tang demonstrate that this narrative overlooks the calculated decisions behind much of […]
By Christina Duran In a March 2023 synthetic report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasized that Central and South America face adverse impacts from increased climate damage “without rapid, deep and sustained mitigation and accelerated adaptation action,” which will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable populations. The need for greater climate change mitigation is […]
China’s flagship infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is known for being greenhouse gas intensive due to its historically large investments in fossil fuels. Chinese leader Xi Jinping announced in September 2021 that China would stop supporting the buildout of coal-fired power plants overseas, while likewise promising to scale up support for clean […]
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 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 […]