Tag: rebecca ray

Experts React: China Will Stop Building Coal Plants Overseas

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 […]

Geolocated Dataset of Chinese Overseas Development Finance

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 […]

Risks to Global Biodiversity and Indigenous Lands from China’s Overseas Development Finance

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 […]

How Green and Inclusive is China’s Overseas Development Finance? A New Global Outlook

By Hongbo Yang and Rebecca Ray China is now the world’s largest source of bilateral development finance and will likely continue to play a prominent role in providing sovereign loans to developing countries through its multi-billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative. This substantial increase in global development finance could potentially bring major benefits to the world […]

Aligning the BRI with the Sustainable Development Goals: Research and Recommendations

By Rebecca Ray After eight years of existence, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has brought significant economic gains to countries around the world by facilitating new investment, linking infrastructure networks and facilitating international trade. In parallel to this growth, China has been developing an environmental management framework to govern outbound investment and finance. To […]

Green BRI and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – Enhancing Environmental Management System and Policy Studies for BRI Projects

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 […]

From Escazú to Environmental Action: Researcher Q&A

By Bridgette Lang Lithium, an element used in rechargeable batteries and other sustainable energy sources, is in high demand as the green energy market grows. Though lithium products can help countries reduce their carbon footprint, its extraction process is quite far from being eco-friendly. Inevitably, governments and investors must make tradeoffs and difficult decisions. In […]

Who Controls Multilateral Development Finance?

The 21st century has seen a surge in interest in development banking, characterized by waves of capital increases in existing banks and the creation of two new regional development banks (RDBs): the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and New Development Bank (NDB). Scholars have noted these banks’ creation was motivated in part by a perceived […]