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 […]
By Yan Wang and Ying Qian After nearly three years of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, the global economy is facing three overlapping crises: 1) the climate crisis, as shown by extreme weather disasters, 2) Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has led to energy and food prices to skyrocket and 3) capital outflows from […]
Hydrocarbon producing countries will face important fiscal challenges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and then move to a net-zero emission (NZE) scenario. Efforts taken to reduce these emissions will lower demand for fossil fuels globally and result in falling production volumes and decreased prices. As a […]
For the second year in a row, the China-Latin America Finance Database, jointly managed by the Boston University Global Development Policy Center and the Inter-American Dialogue, recorded no new overseas finance commitments from China to Latin American governments or state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in 2021 through its two most active policy banks, the China Development Bank […]
By Rebecca Ray As part of the Spring 2022 Global China Research Colloquium, Carlos Larrea, Professor of Social Science at the Universidad Andina Simón Bolivar in Ecuador, shared his vision for a debt-for-nature swap between Ecuador and China, wherein portions of debt would be cancelled on the condition of allocating saved funds for conservation investments. […]
By Maureen Heydt From October 11-15, 2021, China will host the first phase of the 15th Convention on Biological Diversity, Conference of the Parties (CBD COP15), a major global summit on biodiversity. Signed by 150 government leaders and entered into force on December 29, 1993, the Convention on Biological Diversity is dedicated to promoting sustainable […]
Can China implement debt-for-nature and debt-for-climate swaps to protect the environment and reduce global debt? Join Boston University’s Global Development Policy (GDP) Center and special guests Carlos Larrea and Shuang Li for a webinar discussion and interactive launch on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021. As the triple crises of climate change, debt and COVID-19 converge and […]
Indigenous peoples have bred crop varieties over centuries that are adapted to various climatic conditions. But genocide, land grabs and the Green Revolution have rendered many of these varieties lost forever. Despite all this, surviving indigenous communities have retained their traditional agricultural practices, knowledge and biodiversity. Indigenous knowledge strengthens global food security. In order to […]
Since the turn of the 21st century, South America’s Western Andean nations have adopted some of the world’s most ambitious environmental and social protections surrounding infrastructure investment, including most notably the right to prior consultation for affected Indigenous communities. These reforms have been matched by the adoption of equally ambitious environmental and social safeguards (ESS) […]
The Andean Amazon is experiencing a surge of infrastructure investment financed by development banks often headquartered thousands of miles away. Regardless of the environmental and social risk management (ESRM) systems deployed by these projects, the surge has been associated with furthering environmental degradation and triggering social conflict in areas that can scarce afford it. The […]