BEIJING – China’s Belt and Road Initiative is a threat to climate change and is responsible for causing environmental degradation. Almost 90 percent of its energy projects are carbon-intensive and operate on fossil fuel, said a think tank.
The Belt and Road Initiative, known in Chinese and formerly in English as One Belt One Road, is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted in 2013 to invest in nearly 70 countries and international organizations.
The Belt and Road Initiative is set to aggravate environmental degradation and climate change further by contributing to the burning of carbon dioxide, International Forum For Rights and Security said on Sept. 3.
Coal-burning accounts for nearly 46 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions while 72 percent of greenhouse gases from the electricity sector.
The Belt and Road Initiative project— which is spread across the five continents— will have severe, negative impacts on Earth. Under Chinese control, environmental guidelines are rarely followed, as per the International Forum for Rights and Security.
“What China is selling is the China development model, which was energy-intensive, no holds barred,” said Jennifer Turner, director of the China Environment Forum at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
The communist regime has termed the Belt and Road Initiative as an environmentally sustainable and green project even though most of the projects are dependent on fossil fuels.
The Chinese projects will be carried out conventionally in energy and transportation, as per the World Resources Institute. And in the conventional pattern, the projects would not be committed to low-carbon development strategies and objectives, said The International Forum for Rights and Security.
“From 2014 to 2017, 91 percent of the energy-sector syndicated loans in which the six major Chinese banks and 61 percent of the energy-sector loans financed entirely by China Development Bank and/or China Exim bank were in fossil fuels,” states a report by the World Resources Institute.
“If Chinese government special funds are deployed to give greater priority to green opportunities, especially in the near term, these funds could have an outsized positive impact on green growth in the Belt and Road Initiative countries.”
“Since the Chinese government proposed the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, Chinese investments have been increasing rapidly in the countries under the Belt and Roads Initiative.
“The trend will likely continue, supported by the Chinese government’s 2017 pledge of $ 113 billion in special funds for investments in Belt and Roads Initiative,” states the report.
However, the communist regime does not publicize the details of the Belt and Road Initiative contracts.
As per the Global Environment Institute, at the end of 2016, nearly 240 coal-fired projects were planned in different countries under the Belt and Road Initiative.
( With inputs from ANI)
Edited by Saptak Datta and Ritaban Misra
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