China's Global Role

中国在非洲的环境足迹

Tuesday, May 13, 2008
伴随着涉足非洲的经济,中国快速扩大了在非洲的环境足迹。中国对非洲战略的一个重要目标在于,开发迄今尚未得到的资源。此类资源通常位于生态脆弱及深陷腐败和冲突的国家。作为非洲发展的长期伙伴,中国对于解决其工程项目对环境造成的影响非常关注。中国政府出台了海外投资影响的指导方针,但仍需进一步加强。   《中国在非洲的环境足迹》研究了中国的非洲战略,并且分析了与西方国家做法的异同。本文详细阐述了中国战略的环

China's Environmental Footprint in Africa

Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Download the report (PDF, 500KB) Report translation in Chinese Along with its economic presence, China has rapidly expanded its environmental footprint in Africa. An important objective of China's Africa strategy is to extract natural resources which have so far not been accessible. Such resources are often located in fragile ecosystems and countries plagued by corruption and conflict. As a long-term partner in Africa's development, China has an interest in addressing the environmental impacts of its projects. The Chinese government has issued guidelines on the impacts of ove

Report: New Financiers and the Environment

Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Ten Perspectives on How Financial Institutions Can Protect the Environment Financial institutions from countries such as China, Brazil, India and Thailand are playing an increasingly active role in financing infrastructure and mining projects around the world. With new loan approvals of $36 billion, China Exim Bank for example became the world’s largest export credit agency in 2007. Although they invest in environmentally sensitive sectors, many emerging financiers do not yet apply internationally accepted standards in their projects. This new report discusses the experience with envir

China: New Dam Builder for the World

Friday, December 28, 2007
The Wall Street Journal December 28 2007 By Shai Oster December 28, 2007 — Home to almost half of the world’s 45,000 biggest dams, China has embarked on a push to export its hydropower know-how to developing countries — even as it contends with environmental damage and social upheaval at home from the massive Three Gorges Dam. Many other countries and international organizations have begun to shy away from dam building. But Chinese companies and banks are now involved in billions of dollars worth of deals to construct at least 47 major dams in 27 countries, including Sudan and

Zambia: From the World Bank to China and Back

African governments have often praised Chinese investment as the panacea for their infrastructure sectors. Zambia’s experience demonstrates that it is not. A Chinese hydropower project on the Kafue River has brought up the whole conundrum of financial problems, environmental impacts, hydro dependency and delays that is typical for large dams. Mining is the mainstay of Zambia’s formal economy, and consumes a lot of energy. When the copper sector started booming in 2002, finding new sources of energy became a necessity. Since the mid-1990s, the Zambian government had tried to attract

China's Global Role and the Environment

Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Listen to this presentation about China's global role and the environment which Policy Director Peter Bosshard gave at the San Francisco Commonwealth Club on February 13, 2008.

Censored

We have received a lot of positive feedback to the launch of my new blog on international financial institutions and the environment. Encouraging comments have reached us from NGOs in China, Africa and other parts of the world, academics, journalists, government and World Bank officials. The propaganda apparatus of the Chinese government does not seem to appreciate the new blog. Last week, the International Rivers website was for the first time blocked in China. It is the role of civil society to promote international social and environmental standards, and to hold powerful actors from all

China Fills Our Tank

Even at the pump, we now rely on Chinese companies to do the dirty work for us. Chinese companies are drilling for oil in Africa and Central Asia and building pipelines and other infrastructure to extract the mineral wealth. In an op-ed entitled, We Are All Chinese, I discussed China’s growing environmental footprint on the planet in the San Francisco Chronicle on February 8, 2008. I argued that China needs to follow international environmental standards in its investments, but that the overuse of global resources is our responsibility. Most Chinese don’t drive cars, and already now, t

We Are All Chinese

American Gothic by Grant Wood
Saturday, February 2, 2008
China is rapidly expanding its economic and environmental footprint on the planet. Chinese companies are exploring oil fields in Africa, drilling for gas in Burma, building dams in the Mekong region, and cutting down forests in Indonesia. American Gothic by Grant Wood On the latest count, China was building at least 79 large dams overseas. This dam-building spree has a major impact on the world’s rivers and watershed. A new report on Chinese dams in Cambodia shows that four of the six Chinese dams in this country will impact protected areas, including national parks. In a comment in

China Digital Times Interview About China's Role in Global Dam Building

Thursday, January 31, 2008
Listen to this interview with Policy Director Peter Bosshard about China's role in global dam building.

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