从“走出去”到可持续发展 - 2023-10-16
As the BRI enters its second decade, China has said it will increase support for green and clean energy projects, evidence of the initiative's ecological evolution
The year 2023 marks a crucial turning point for Chinese enterprises — from "going out" to achieving sustainability. By now, Chinese enterprises have been venturing overseas for over a decade, landing foreign engineering contracts and providing labor cooperation as part of their foreign economic cooperation models.
During this period, the primary supportive measures from policies were aimed at "simplifying various approval procedures and implementing the autonomy of overseas investments by enterprises." It can be said that early endeavors of "going out" by Chinese enterprises were akin to "crossing the river by feeling for stones", with environmental factors of Chinese overseas investments not being a top priority.
China officially proposed the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013.The same year, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Environmental Protection (now the Ministry of Ecology and Environment) jointly released China's first "Guidelines on Environmental Protection in China's Overseas Economic Cooperation", initiating guidance for enterprises to fulfill their environmental protection responsibilities.
Over the course of nearly a decade, China has introduced numerous policies and guidelines related to the "Green BRI", including the updated 2022 version of the "Guidelines for Environmental Protection in Overseas Investment and Cooperation Projects". Today, discussions surrounding the BRI have shifted toward climate and biodiversity conservation. From this perspective, China has made significant progress in constructing an ecological framework for the initiative.
Now, the initiative has evolved from its early stages to the integration of China's overseas investments with domestic green initiatives. Over the past decade, green financing mechanisms supporting infrastructure financing, such as green bonds and green loans, have rapidly developed, making China the world's largest green bond market. Many leading financial institutions have begun to assess, manage, and disclose their climate risks, and have joined initiatives such as the "Belt and Road Green Investment Principles" and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero. China also announced in 2021 to stop building new coal-fired power projects overseas, promoting Green Belt and Road by halting domestic financing for such projects.
China's presidency of the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2020 marked a crucial moment in global biodiversity conservation, being pivotal in establishing the Global Biodiversity Framework and committing to the"30x30" goal to conserve 30 percent of the Earth's land and ocean areas by 2030. Additionally, the China Banking Association facilitated collaboration among Chinese and foreign banks, international organizations, issuing the "Declaration of Support for Biodiversity Conservation" during the first phase of COP15 in Kunming in 2020.This has strengthened support for biodiversity conservation and hinted at future green finance innovations, directing funds toward renewable energy and green infrastructure investments in the Belt and Road participating countries, aligning with China's domestic energy transformation and its global impact.
Although some critics may argue that the "Green Belt and Road" lacks feasibility and implementation on the international stage, this perspective does not tell the whole story. On the domestic front, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, responsible for promoting green development within the Belt and Road, has participated in formulating policies and guidelines regulating overseas investment activities by enterprises. Furthermore, several government ministries and industry associations are emphasizing the importance of the ESG(Environment, Social and Governance) principles to foster the high-quality growth of companies. Notably, the Ministry of Finance is actively supporting the development of global sustainability disclosure standards, as evidenced by the opening of a new Beijing office for the International Sustainability Standards Board in December 2022. However, it is generally believed that there is a lack of actionable implementation tools, especially given that the standards and regulations in most BRI participating countries lag behind China's.
Nevertheless, the "Green Belt and Road" is not solely a regulatory issue; the most significant progress over the past decade has been driven by reforms in domestic industrial policies. China has become a leader in the transition to new energy. According to the report from the Green Finance and Development Centre at Fudan University in Shanghai, in the first half of 2023, renewable energy, including solar, wind, and hydropower, accounted for nearly 56 percent of the energy-related "engagement" (in the forms of construction and investment) overseas, making it the "greenest" year since the inception of the BRI in 2013. As the Belt and Road enters its second decade, China has explicitly stated that it will increase support for green and clean energy projects in the Belt and Road participating countries. With sufficient funding and robust policy frameworks in target countries, China's low-cost clean energy technologies can be a boon for developing nations, helping them achieve industrial upgrading and low-carbon economic growth.
The author is Ren Peng, the program director of Overseas Investment, Trade and the Environment at the Global Environmental Institute, a member of Green Trade and Investment Committee of China Environmental Science Association.
Source: China Daily
