China’s Belt and Road Initiative is replicating China’s fossil fuel-based climb from poverty in two-thirds of the world. These countries have two-thirds of the world’s population, 30 percent of global GDP, and an estimated 75 percent of known energy reserves. Those countries have an average per capita GDP of one-third of China’s per capita GDP. China is funding coal, oil, natural gas, ports, airports, mines, factories and industry to build up those countries.
Chinese companies are involved in over 240 coal projects in 25 of the Belt and Road countries, including in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Serbia, Kenya, Ghana, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. China is financing about half of proposed new coal capacity in Egypt, Tanzania, and Zambia.
Since 2000, Chinese-led policy banks have invested $160 billion in overseas energy projects. This is almost as much as the World Bank and regional development banks. 80 percent of China’s overseas energy investments went to fossil fuels — $54.6 billion to oil, $43.5 billion to coal, and $18.8 billion to natural gas.
Steel, Energy and Ports
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