![\"launchpad](\"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/lp-gateway.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDitching coal (almost)<\/h4>\n
At a UN meeting in September 2021, Xi announced that \u201cChina will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy, and will not build new coal-fired power plants abroad\u201d.<\/p>\n
Since then, no new investments in coal power plants have been recorded under the BRI, according to the China Overseas Finance Inventory, which tracks Chinese equity and debt investments in the power generation sector. The database is a collaborative effort between five US universities and institutes, and contains transaction details of 652 investments in 569 power plants across 87 BRI countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is huge interest in having Chinese manufacturers, developers and state-owned enterprises going out and supporting the green energy transition. This is a change,\u201d Christoph Nedopil, an expert in green finance and the BRI, told China Dialogue.<\/p>\n
The interest mostly comes from host countries and partly from Chinese companies wanting to be closer to their customers and avoid potential trade restrictions, among other reasons, Nedopil said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost Chinese state-owned companies and banks I know are not interested in coal projects anymore,\u201d he added. \u201cThis was not true in 2020, when there was still a lot of talk about the need for coal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The shift in mindset can also be found in a lot of host countries, he noted. \u201cThe understanding is that coal is less relevant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nedopil is director of the Griffith Asia Institute in Australia. When China Dialogue spoke with him, he was director of the Green Finance and Development Centre (GDFC) at Fanhai International School of Finance, part of Fudan University, in Shanghai. At the GFDC, he published a series of reports analysing BRI investments.<\/p>\n
The GFDC\u2019s latest assessment found that China\u2019s energy-related \u201cengagement\u201d \u2013 meaning construction and investment \u2013 under the BRI in the first half of 2023 was the \u201cgreenest\u201d for any six-month period since the initiative\u2019s launch in 2013.<\/p>\n
The report looked at the share of renewable projects in all-energy engagement, which includes power generation and exploration of resources related to energy. It found that nearly 56% of the US$12.3 billion that China spent on energy projects during the period went into renewable sources, with 41% going into solar and wind, and 14% into hydropower.<\/p>\n
However, some experts emphasised that not all new coal power projects have been scrapped. While Xi\u2019s announcement was \u201ccertainly a step in the right direction\u201d, a few projects are still moving ahead, such as a 300 MW coal power plant in Pakistan and a 1.5-gigawatt (GW) plant in Indonesia, Blake Berger, associate director at the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York, told China Dialogue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is where the loopholes begin to come into play,\u201d Berger noted. The plant on Obi, an island in eastern Indonesia, dodged the axe because it was designed as an internal facility of an industrial park instead of a standalone coal power project. On the other hand, the project in Gwadar, in southwestern Pakistan, is not considered \u201cnew\u201d by Chinese and Pakistani officials as it was first proposed in 2016 but repeatedly delayed.<\/p>\n