| dc.description.abstract |
China’s ambitious vision for the Belt and the Road initiative (BRI) marks a global
milestone for economic and political cooperation across Asia, Europe, Africa, and
South America. With more than 100 member countries accounting for around one-third
of the world trade, BRI’s geographical scope is unmatched. Despite China’s vision
for “green” development, BRI’s trillion-dollar infrastructure and energy projects
introduce immense environmental risks. Carbon-intensive investments and recipient
countries’ asymmetry in addressing environmental issues pose challenges in sustaining
green development and meeting the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. Our research
investigates China’s vision for green investments by gauging BRI countries’ potential
to support environmentally sustainable projects. The study assesses the environmental
sustainability potential (ESP) for each country’s performance on climate and energy
across the “Five Connectivity Framework”, identified by the Chinese government as
the BRI cooperation priority across policy, trade, finance, facilities, and people-to-people
connections. The ESP index scores BRI countries across these five connectivities using
key environmental indicators. The analysis also presents a case study of BRI countries
along the three Asian economic corridors to identify trends and provide specific recommendations
for environmental safeguards.
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