November’s COP30 gathering in Belém, Brazil, marks three decades since COP1 in Berlin in 1995, and raises a sobering reminder of how deep we’ve sunk into a climate morass of our own making amid non-stop warnings. The evacuation of millions of people and the deaths of at least seventeen due to Typhoon Ragasa’s rampage through the Philippines, Taiwan, and China couldn’t have been more pointedly timed as U.S. and Chinese ...
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Inside the Bid: How Chinese Power Projects Are Procured in Africa
Behind every power plant is a crucial decision: who gets to build it, and how. Whether a project is delivered on time and on budget often hinges on how it was procured. Was it awarded through a competitive bidding process or negotiated behind closed doors? Were contractors ...
Recapping the Fundamentals: Key Lessons on Chinese Financing for Power Projects
The financing may be Chinese, the builders Chinese too, but the consequences are overwhelmingly those of the host state. Decisions, often made in boardrooms thousands of kilometers away, can shape the development trajectory of African countries for decades. That is why understanding how Chinese infrastructure projects are ...
Crude Deals or Clever Design? Unpacking China’s Resource-Backed Finance in Africa
It is not every day that a highway is paid for with barrels of oil. Yet in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, that is exactly how some of the region’s largest infrastructure projects are being financed. Instead of tapping their treasuries or issuing sovereign bonds, governments are ...
Inside the Fine Print: Understanding Finance Contracts in Chinese-supported Power Projects
Every power plant begins long before a single shovel hits the ground. Before turbines are ordered, before concrete is poured, and well before the lights ever flicker on, a dense legal and financial architecture must first be assembled. For state-backed Chinese infrastructure projects in Africa, that ...
Bundles, Banks, and Builders: Inside China’s Finance Models for Power Projects in Africa
Building large-scale infrastructure requires more than engineering expertise. Just as critical is how the project is financed, how capital is raised, structured, and repaid. In Chinese-supported power projects across Sub-Saharan Africa, finance is often the entry point: the mechanism through which projects are proposed, evaluated, and ...
Motives That Matter: The Economic and Strategic Logic Behind China’s Power Sector Engagement in Africa
Why is China building power plants across Sub-Saharan Africa? What exactly motivates its involvement in the sector? What does it hope to gain, and what does this mean for countries on the receiving end of its infrastructure support? Is this simply a gesture of South-South solidarity, ...
Inside China’s Power Play: Understanding the Institutions Behind Africa’s Energy Projects
China’s role in African power generation is substantial. Chinese-backed projects account for approximately 23 GW of installed generation capacity across at least 27 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa – nearly 20 percent of the region’s total. This footprint reflects more than just a financial commitment; it signals ...
Understanding China’s Role in Africa’s Power Sector: A New Series from The China-Global South Project
China is helping build nearly one in every five power plants operating in Sub-Saharan Africa today, yet most people know very little about how these projects come together. As electricity demand rises and traditional development partners pull back, China’s influence is becoming even more significant.