Coal phase-out in the Belt and Road Initiative

The recently established Green Belt and Road Initiative Center (GBRIC) in Beijing posted a Brief in June 21 this year demonstrating how China’s overseas energy investments are greening -- a very different story from the predominance of coal fuelled generation investments of recent years. The Brief, by Dr Christoph Nedopil Wang, can be found here: Brief: Coal phase-out in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): an analysis of Chinese-backed coal power from 2014-2020 – Green Belt and Road Initiative Center (green-bri.org)

The principal chart in the Brief shows the changing proportions of investment in coal-fired and renewables-powered generating plants in China’s overseas energy investments, culminating in the year 2020 when investments in hydro and renewables (what I have referred to consistently as energy investments in Water, Wind and Sun) reached 57.4% of the total – or more than half. This is clear evidence of the greening of China’s overseas energy investments, to complement the greening of China’s domestic energy investments.