Category: Energy
China, Europe and the Geopolitics of African Renewable Energy
Both China and the European Union have identified renewable energy as a key part of their engagement strategies with Africa. At FOCAC last year, the Chinese vowed to increase investment in solar, hydro, and other green technologies while the EU made ...
China’s Policy Banks Stopped All Funding For Overseas Energy Projects Last Year
The once seemingly endless flow of Chinese money to fund energy projects throughout the Global South reached a milestone in 2021 when it dropped to zero, according to new research from Boston University's Global Development Policy Center. A ...
Outlier or New Normal? Trends from the 2022 China’s Global Energy Finance Database Update
By Cecilia Han Springer 2021 saw persistent economic impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, narrowing borrowing capacities in developing countries, and a global trend towards phasing out coal. These factors converged in a shocking finding from the 2022 release of the China Global Energy Finance (CGEF) Database, managed ...
New Complaint Adds to Kenya’s Chinese Contractor Woes
A Chinese contractor has slapped the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) with a bill for 1.1 billion Kenyan shillings ($9.6 million) in interest for delayed payments. The contractor, Nari-PCGE, complained to the Kenyan Parliament that it hadn’t been paid for its work on the 428-kilometer Loiyangalani-Suswa transmission line. ...
South Africa’s Limpopo Province Approves $10 Billion Chinese-Finance Coal Project… But There’s Just One Very Small Problem
South Africa's Limpopo Province gave the go-ahead last week for a $10 billion industrial project that includes a 4,600-megawatt coal power plant, a coking facility, and a steel plant. The approval is critical for the development of the controversial Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone. ...
Phasing Down Coal in the Global South
By Rishikesh Ram Bhandary and Cecilia Han Springer Although Chinese President Xi Jinping announced last year that China will no longer build new coal-fired power plants overseas, the Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center’s China’s Global Power (CGP) Database shows 60 coal ...
New Report Isn’t Optimistic About Chinese Development of Wind and Solar Power Projects in Africa… At Least For Now
Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke at length last week during his keynote address at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation conference in Dakar about the need to promote green energy development in Africa. The continent lags far behind the rest of the world in the use ...
Presidents Sall and Ramaphosa Address FOCAC
Senegalese President Macky Sall, host of this year's FOCAC, and President Cyril Rampahosa from South Africa both delivered speeches at the forum on Monday, among the few African leaders this year to speak at the event. Both spoke of the importance ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: China Issues Travel Warning For Both Nigeria & DR Congo
The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a travel warning on Monday for its citizens in both Nigeria and the DR Congo and called on its nationals in high-risk areas in both countries to evacuate immediately. Spokesman Zhao Lijian specifically called on Chinese nationals in the eastern DRC provinces of ...
COVID Flare-Ups in China Threaten to Disrupt What’s Otherwise Been a Strong Year For China-Africa Trade
While global trade experiences unprecedented disruptions of major supply chain networks, that turbulence does not appear to have had much effect on the volume of Chinese trade with African countries, at least so far. Chinese ...
Energy Think Tank Head Proposes 3 Ways China Can Help to Develop Africa’s Next Generation Power Market
Representatives from eight African countries met with leaders from China's oil and gas industry along with prominent think tank analysts to discuss China-Africa energy cooperation issues in a sideline conference to the Second Belt and Road Ministerial forum on energy trade and investment.
Belt and Road Energy Conference Opens in Qingdao, Ethiopia’s Ambassador to China Among First Day Speakers
Representatives from 32 countries attended the opening day of the Belt and Road Energy Partnership conference in the northern port city of Qingdao on Monday. Ethiopia's ambassador to China Teshome Toga (photo) was among the first day's speakers along with Vice-Premier Han Zheng. ...