U.S. special climate envoy John Kerry will be in China next week to pressure the government to renounce all future financing of coal power plants around the world. Although China generally does not respond well to foreign demands like this, Beijing may have already acceded to Kerry’s request.
So far this year, China hasn’t financed a single overseas coal project. This is the first time that’s happened in more than a decade and appears to be part of a growing trend to focus its development finance initiatives on greener, cleaner projects that are smaller and less risky financially.
Christoph Nedopil, director of the Green Finance and Development Center at Fudan University, is among the world’s leading experts in tracking Chinese sustainable energy finance, particularly in Belt and Road countries. He joins Eric & Cobus from Shanghai to discuss the findings from his latest BRI investment report for H1 2021.
