Gallagher Interviewed on China’s Climate Leadership
Kevin Gallagher, Professor of Global Development Policy at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was recently interviewed by several news outlets on the contrast between China’s plans to drastically reduce coal consumption and plans by the country’s energy companies for highly polluting projects abroad.
Gallagher was quoted in a July 1 ,2017 article in the New York Times entitled “As Beijing Joins Climate Fight, Chinese Companies Build Coal Plants.”
From the text of the article:
Kevin P. Gallagher, a professor of global development policy at Boston University and an expert in Chinese energy investment overseas, said a strong infrastructure demand in developing countries and a sharp fall in coal financing by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank had opened up the field for Chinese involvement.
“In China, you have lots of very competitive and politically influential companies — but all of a sudden there’s no demand,” Professor Gallagher said, referring to China’s slowing economic growth. “So China is helping these companies go overseas to help make the adjustment at home less painful.”
Gallagher was also quoted in a June 30, 2017 article in Dialogo Chino entitled “China Cuts Coal Consumption But Adds to Brazil’s Thermoelectric Power.“
From the text of the article:
“Since 2013, we have seen external financing for coal from the China Development Bank (CDB) grow 40%,” says Kevin Gallagher, professor of global development at Boston University. He adds: “If we look at historic Chinese investment in the coal sector abroad, 75% of this total took place over the last four years. China represents 8% of global external financing for the coal sector.”
According to Gallagher, one of the reasons behind the increased Chinese presence in external financing for coal is because several international banks such as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) decided to stop funding it due to its high environmental impact.
Kevin P. Gallagher is a professor of global development policy at Boston University, where he co-directs the Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI). GEGI’s mission is to advance policy relevant research on governance for financial stability, human development, and the environment on a global scale. You can follow him on Twitter @KevinPGallagher.