Environmental Governance of China's Belt and Road Initiative

Coenen, Johanna; Bager, Simon; Meyfroidt, Patrick; Newig, Jens; Challies, Edward

doi:10.1002/eet.1901

Cited by 131 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…First assessments, e.g., by Chen and Wang ( 2020 ), conclude that the Chinese course has not advanced sufficiently towards a “BRI 2.0” that could gain broad support from Western developed nations. Implementing a “green BRI” based on voluntary self-governance has so far not shown to be effective, not least due to limited political willingness and capacity of BRI partner countries (Coenen et al 2020 ). As the World Bank ( 2019 ) notes, “improved transparency and data on projects are an indispensable precondition for many of these actions.…”

Section: Uncertainties and Risks Accompanying The Brimentioning

confidence: 99%

China connecting Europe?

Gruebler

2021

Asia Eur J

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The significance of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for Europe is increasing. The diplomatic initiative “16 + 1,” comprising China and 16 Central, East and Southeast European economies (CESEE), expanded to a “17 + 1” format in April 2019, when Greece officially joined the cooperation forum. This expansion revived interest in Chinese activities aimed at better physical and digital connectivity in Europe and their effects. The article descriptively shows a geographical division of Chinese infrastructure development activities in Europe: the “17 + 1” region is targeted more intensively by Chinese construction projects. Moreover, roughly 90% of all construction contracts with the “17 + 1” region are attributable to connectivity sectors, while Chinese activities in other European regions are more diversified. In Europe, the Western Balkans are expected to economically benefit the most from the BRI, as they show particularly high deficiencies in infrastructure, and so far, have limited access to EU grants. Economic effects of infrastructure projects, however, trickle through European production and supply chains, affecting a larger number of countries than information on projects would suggest. EU initiatives presented since 2018 may help to increase complementarity between Chinese and European infrastructure development plans and reduce associated risks, such as unsustainable debt or new trade barriers arising from increased competition for Chinese investments. The BRI is about to change physical and digital connectivity within Europe, while the EU has yet to become an active player engaging in the initiative, in order to enable improved connectivity in Europe to drive economic convergence and not political divergence.

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Section: Uncertainties and Risks Accompanying The Brimentioning

confidence: 99%

China connecting Europe?

Gruebler

2021

Asia Eur J

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“…Control variables. With reference to existing research [27][28][29], we select a series of control variables. The measurement indicators of the economic development level are relatively mature.…”

Section: Model Specifications and Statistical Testmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of rating and praise campaigns on local government environmental governance efficiency: Evidence from the campaign of establishment of national sanitary cities in China

Tang

Lin

et al. 2021

PLoS ONE

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Background Ecological and environmental protection is essential to achieving sustainable and high-quality development, which highlights the important role of environmental governance. In terms of the practical actions of environmental governance, the central government in China has carried out continuous rating and praise campaigns, and local governments have actively promoted this effort. However, the related performance consequences have not been empirically investigated. We aimed to verify whether this incentive policy can improve the efficiency of environmental governance and whether this governance method has long-term effects. In addition, we sought to identify mechanisms through which the policy can improve environmental governance. Method We take the rating and praise campaign of the Establishment of National Sanitary Cities (EONSCs) as a quasi-natural experiment and use the panel data for 174 cities from 2004 to 2016 and the propensity score matching-difference in differences (PSM-DID) method to test the impact of rating and praise campaigns on environmental governance efficiency. Results EONSCs campaign can improve the efficiency of environmental governance by 0.7595 (p<0.01), which is significant at the 1% level; the effects are clearly significant during the evaluation process and the year in which cities are named National Sanitary Cities (NSCs) but decrease annually thereafter. The EONSCs campaign has a significant promoting effect on public services provision, such as public infrastructure investment, public transportation and education. Conclusions (1) The rating and praise campaigns can effectively improve the efficiency of environmental governance; (2) the incentive effect is distorted and is not a long-term effect; (3) the impact of the rating and praise campaign of EONSCs on the efficiency of environmental governance is mainly realized through the provision of corresponding public services that are closely related to environmental protection. The findings of this paper provide empirical support for the effectiveness of the central government’s rating and praise campaigns and could motivate local governments to actively participate in environmental governance. Moreover, the findings provide an important reference for further improving the rating and praise campaigns and the level of environmental governance.

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“…Identifying future Chinese-funded dams in BRI countries China has not released an official list of BRI projects 58 . Therefore, we included all future hydropower projects financed by China in BRI countries in our study.…”

Section: Identifying Dams and Dam Locationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodiversity risks and safeguards of China’s hydropower investments in Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Countries

Narain

Teo

Lechner

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The imperative of a global transition to renewables to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 calls for an examination of the associated biodiversity risks. Hydropower is the biggest source of renewable energy globally, and its remaining untapped potential is concentrated in low and lower-middle income countries which are also among the world’s most biodiverse. China has emerged as a major overseas financier of hydropower dams under its flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). We assess the biodiversity risk posed by proposed or under-construction hydropower dams being funded by China in BRI countries and compare it with that of dams being funded by Multi-lateral Development Banks (MDBs) – the other key overseas financiers of hydropower. We find that 48 hydropower dams are being financed by China in 18 BRI countries, likely impacting 14 free-flowing rivers and the ranges of 11 critically endangered freshwater fish species, and 130 km2 of critical terrestrial habitat(within a 1-km buffer distance). When compared to dams funded by MDBs, Chinese-funded dams are not located in riskier areas for biodiversity, but the total risk is higher due to their preponderance. We find that Chinese regulators and hydropower companies do not specify any enforceable biodiversity impact mitigation requirements. And while MDBs do specify binding safeguards, impacts on river connectivity do not form a part of the mitigation requirements, except in the case of the European Investment Bank (EIB). China is uniquely positioned to adopt a leadership role in specifying safeguards that will help BRI countries adopt an optimum renewable energy mix that minimizes biodiversity risks.

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Environmental Governance of China's Belt and Road Initiative

Cited by 131 publications

References 62 publications

China connecting Europe?

China connecting Europe?

Impact of rating and praise campaigns on local government environmental governance efficiency: Evidence from the campaign of establishment of national sanitary cities in China

Biodiversity risks and safeguards of China’s hydropower investments in Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Countries

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