Tag: energy
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Time is Running Out to Jump Out of the Fire
The new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s massive new report makes for scary reading. The UN Secretary-General António Guterres called it a ‘code red for humanity’ and that’s probably understating the level of danger. It’s increasingly clear that staving off global disaster ...
Stop the Blame Game: The Complex Picture of China and Coal Finance
By Hugo Jones and Lukas Fiala Apocalyptic images reach us from China this week. The immense flooding in Henan province has come with tragic human cost, a typhoon has edged onto China’s eastern coast, and Shanghai is facing torrential rains and winds. These events have already stirred discussions ...
The Impact of China’s Financing for Coal on Climate Change and Agriculture in Africa
Back in September 2020, President Xi Jinping announced China would aim for carbon neutrality by 2060, followed by setting more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for 2030. Such bold commitments appeared to reflect Beijing progressing towards adopting climate-friendly policies, premised on low-carbon and renewable technologies. ...
Why African Energy Exporters Should Be Concerned About CNOOC’s Interest in a Massive Qatari Gas Deal
One of China's three major oil and gas companies, CNOOC, is reportedly interested in joining the world's largest natural gas project in Qatar. The company's CFO Xie Weizhi said CNOOC is exploring the option to invest in the $29 ...
What Will it Take to Realize Biden’s Vision of an Alternative BRI?
U.S. President Joe Biden's commitment to rolling out infrastructure domestically and internationally is setting up a fascinating race with China. After years of withdrawing from multilateral cooperation and refusing to engage with the realities of climate change, the current push raises ...
China’s New Agreement With Iran is Important, Just Not That Important Say Experts
This weekend's signing of a highly-anticipated 25-year security and economic cooperation agreement between China and Iran was met with predictable anxiety in Washington and European capitals. The pact, signed by the visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, calls for cooperation ...
Start Imagining a Post-Carbon China, and Africa
Chinese total carbon emissions could peak by 2028, with emissions coming from the electricity sector topping out as early as 2025. This is according to Liu Zhenya, who runs the Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization, a Beijing-based think tank. Liu’s previous job is maybe more ...
U.S., European Claims That the BRI Is in Trouble Are Way Overblown, Says Prominent Chinese Scholar
The sharp drop in Chinese overseas development finance lending documented by Boston University's Center for Global Policy Development among others has prompted critics of Beijing's Belt and Initiative in the United States and Europe to suggest that the massive global trade agenda is in trouble.
Chinese Financing to Latin America Fell to Zero in 2020, Providing a Cautionary Tale For Africa and Other Developing Regions
There's new evidence of the dramatic plunge in Chinese overseas development finance. Researchers in the United States found that for the first time in more than a decade, China's two largest policy banks, the China Development Bank and the China Exim Bank, did not ...
China’s Cutting Back on BRI Financing, But Not For Renewable Energy
China has dramatically cut back financing overseas infrastructure development initiatives, especially for carbon-intensive energy projects involving oil, gas, and coal. From 2016 to 2019, China's two major policy banks slashed lending by a stunning 85%. ...
China’s Confusing, Contradictory Environmental Agenda
While scrolling today I came across this great piece by the China expert and former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, laying out the wider implications of China's much-discussed commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. Rudd points out that ...
Chinese Energy Engagement in Africa
China plays an indispensable role in Africa's burgeoning energy market as a financier and contractor for much of the new electrical capacity across the continent. China's building large new coal plants in Zimbabwe, solar power facilities in Kenya and Zambia and ...