China leading green development across the globe
CHINA, the 2nd largest economy and largest trading nation of the world having the largest foreign exchange reserves with the pledges of achieving carbon neutrality by the middle of this century has gained the attention of international community in the field of global development governance.
China’s commitment of assisting the development strategies across the globe has been continuously strengthening international political and economic arenas as well as the global governance system.
China as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, a member of BRICS and an important member of G20 has stepped forward in opening the development window of opportunity for other countries in the sphere of South-South Cooperation.
Most importantly, with the advancement of Belt and Road Cooperation (BRI) China is making the greater contribution in green and sustainable development.
The smooth and rapid process of green development under BRI is pushing forward the ideas in aspects like eco-civilization and environmental conservation strategy by forming the green value chain.
The successful implementation of green development initiatives by China based on mutual consultations like BRI is rapidly getting international recognition and promoting the bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
So far, the steady implementation of green development strategy of BRI has attracted more than 147 countries and 32 international organizations by signing more than 200 cooperative documents.
The number of countries joining BRI is a strong vote of confidence on Chinese wisdom of wellbeing for international community that is providing economic assistance gratis, interest-free loans and concessional loans.
According to the data 1,350 Belt and Road projects worth of 1.7 trillion dollars started from 2013 to 2019 include around 100 clean energy-related projects worth $104.95 billion, covering such areas as green infrastructure projects, natural gas pipelines, hydropower, wind power, nuclear power and wastewater treatment. It is to be noted that strong action is needed to decarbonize more than $12 trillion in expected infrastructure investment in the countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative to ensure that the Paris Agreement climate goals are met.
Green development has emerged as one of the common development pursuis in the modern era and China has always developed green and sustainable agendas for the future development of itself and its partner countries.
The perspective of green development strategy along the BRI route has been pushing forward the great opportunity of economic growth and new development of scientific and technological innovation.
By having an eye on the development plans of Chinese government across the globe, it can easily be stated that under the visionary leadership of President Xi Jinping, China is leading the green development in many ways by undertaking various sustainable low carbon/green/eco/initiatives towards the pathway of durable development.
It has been widely recognized that China has been successfully shifting its policy paradigms by exploring the ways for achieving sustainable development actively.
Chinese companies green investment in regions and countries involved in the BRI has substantially mitigated their capital shortage and greatly promoted the green, low-carbon transformation of their economies and energy systems.
As per one of the reports, In the meantime, development-oriented financial institutions such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Silk Road Fund and the BRICS New Development Bank as well as Chinese policy banks are vigorously promoting green finance related to the initiative.
It added that so far 39 global financial institutions including Chinese State-owned commercial banks and policy banks as well as Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank, whose assets under management total $48 trillion have signed up for the Belt and Road Initiative’s Green Investment Principles.
Chinese companies are setting an example in strengthening green management, green development strategies and evaluation over production and operation, scaling up green capital investment, improving the green compliance system and selecting green projects suited to local development conditions, especially those small-scale environmental projects that require less investment, bear fruit soon and deliver good returns
Various projects under BRI are making the successful strides in member countries, however, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has cultivated the mega achievements since its launch as far as the green development is concerned.
CPEC has attracted direct investment totaling 25.4 billion U.S. dollars in Pakistan over the past eight years by also generating more than 80,000 jobs for the local people. Other than this, the concept of green development introduced under CPEC by China in Pakistan aims to enable future generations to have a sustainable green environment.
Nature conservation and by practicing the idea of BRI to promote high quality development of CPEC have shown that both Pakistani and Chinese governments have been supporting each other in green development.
The development of power plants in Pakistan that successfully tackled the energy crisis of the country under CPEC got certifications for being eco-friendly and kept emissions under control to meet the world and local standards.
The recent announcement of China about not to build new coal-fired power projects abroad shows the commitment of Chinese government towards its pledges of helping partner countries in achieving carbon neutrality.
By such measures, China is helping the international community to meet the requirements of Sustainable Development Goals as well by demonstrating its sense of responsibility as a major country.
The BRI infrastructural projects are stretching across the continents that are developing the green value chain by generating the green benefits for the people along the route.
We have witnessed that the pledge of China to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 is speaking louder than its words with the implementation of commitments.
— The author is an award winning journalist and media fellow of China Public Diplomacy Association.
