No new coal projects received backing from China after President Xi Jinping pledged to the United Nations General Assembly last September that the country would put an end to overseas coal financing, a new report by Chinese researchers says.
A Chinese developer, however, won a bid in February to build a thermal power plant in Indonesia, according to new research by the Shanghai-based Green Finance and Development Centre (GFDC), which is part of Shanghai’s Fudan University.
China’s investments in countries that are part of its Belt and Road network saw a marginal decline in the six months to June, with Russia, Sri Lanka and Egypt getting zero investments, the report found.
Funding and investments totalled $28.4 billion, down from $29.6 billion a year earlier, bringing the total cumulative Belt and Road spending since 2013 – when it began – to $932 billion, GFDC said in the research report.
Saudi Arabia attracted the most funds as part of the project during the period, with about $5.5 billion in investments, the report said.
The Belt and Road Initiative that China launched in 2013 to “build a broad community of shared interests” in 147 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America has come under scrutiny over the debt burden it places on member-countries, plus environmental and other issues, such as a series of unfulfilled pledges in the Philippines.
Sri Lanka, Laos Had to Rejig Huge Debts
Some countries have also been forced to renegotiate their investment projects with China, such as Sri Lanka and Laos, which highlight the serious nature of some of the debt risks.
Meanwhile, China has continued to provide support to other fossil fuel projects in Belt and Road countries, with oil and gas amounting to around 80% of China’s overseas energy investments and 66% of its construction contracts, GFDC said.
Engagements in gas projects stood at $6.7 billion in the first half, compared with $9.5 billion over the whole of last year, it said.
Green energy and hydropower transactions fell 22% from a year earlier. Investment rose to $1.4 billion from $400 million, but green energy-related construction spending fell to $1.6 billion, less than half the level a year earlier.
- Reuters with additional editing by Jim Pollard
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