China is now the world’s largest source of bilateral development finance and will likely continue to play a prominent role in sovereign lending through its multi-billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). A new journal article published in Nature’s Scientific Data by a team of Boston University Global Development Policy Center researchers introduces major methodological enhancements […]
China has become one of the world’s largest lenders in overseas development finance. Development projects, such as roads, railways and power plants, can often result in biodiversity loss and infringement on Indigenous lands, yet the risks implicit in China’s overseas development finance have until now been poorly understood. In a new journal article published in […]
Since its inception eight years ago, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has led to more than 200 cooperation documents with 140 countries and 31 international organizations. Behind the scenes, Chinese policymakers have been developing an environmental management framework to govern their outbound investment and finance to “green” the BRI and help countries achieve the […]
By Xu Chen International finance of low carbon technologies is a major driver for the global transition towards a net-zero emissions energy system. As more and more countries work towards national decarbonization targets and align domestic finance with their targets, it is imperative that cross-border finance is also aligned with the Paris Agreement. A new […]
Decarbonizing the power sector will require a fundamental redirection of global finance from fossil fuel infrastructure towards low carbon technologies. Bilateral finance will play an important role in the global energy transition to non-fossil energy, but an understanding of its impact has so far been limited. In a new Science Direct article, Kevin P. Gallagher, […]
Southern-Led Development Finance, a new book edited by Diana Barrowclough, Kevin P. Gallagher and Richard Kozul-Wright, examines some of the innovative new South-South financial arrangements and institutions that have emerged in recent years, as countries from the Global South seek to transform their economies and shield themselves from global economic turbulence. Even before the COVID-19 […]
By Xinyue Ma As more and more countries make concrete domestic decarbonization commitments, it is paramount that national pledges aren’t met by shifting fossil fuel investments overseas. At the G7 Climate and Environment Ministers meeting in May 2021, the group committed “to take concrete steps towards an absolute end to new direct government support for […]
At the June 2021 G7 Summit, leaders made a significant commitment to restrict international investments in coal, but the impact of the commitment was stymied by its exclusion of private finance. There is a misconception that the majority of new funding for overseas coal plants comes from public financing institutions in China, which is partly […]
By Rebecca Ray The triple crisis of public health, the global economy, and climate change are looming for the world, but focusing their havoc on developing countries in particular. While low and middle-income countries (LMICs) have faced wave after wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic also made foreign capital and hard currency scarce, necessitating […]
A debt crisis is looming in the Global South, compounded by the threat of climate change. World leaders such as Kristalina Georgieva, David Malpass, the Biden administration and 23 former Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors have added their voices to a growing chorus calling for comprehensive debt relief linked to a green and inclusive […]