This paper examines how China’s renewable energy investment contributes to the Central Asian countries’ GHG emission reduction target to meet their global climate commitments and the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs2030). The introduction analyzes what problems have emerged in China’s Green Silk Road and Belt Economic Initiative (SRBI) and how global climate change is viewed to affect sustainable energy transition in the Central Asian countries. The paper will then focus on what response in national energy structures have been adopted by Central Asian countries to address global climate change commitments. The main focus of this paper is on how China’s renewable energy investment in Central Asia contributes to solving essential problems for sustainable energy transition, bridging technical gaps and financial barriers for the low-carbon sustainable energy transition and aligning with the Paris agreement to fulfill global climate commitments. The limited institutional capacity and market failure in renewable policy ecosystems in Central Asian countries jeopardizes domestic climate investment and China’s renewable investment potential, increasing national spending for sustainable development transition and triggering huge fiscal deficit and debt crises. This endogenous systemic risk deteriorates financial and technical barriers. This requires regional and multilateral renewables coordination and climate cooperation. China needs to set up a comprehensive green policy for the Central Asian countries to get full support from local and international society. PPP and multilateral cooperation in the international renewables investment have not only mobilized more climate financial resources but also mitigate and diversify market failure risk.
Author(s) Details:
Shuqin Gao
Harvard Economics Department, 1805 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts MA02138, U.S.A and UNDP Sustainable Finance Hub, New York NY10017, U.S.A.
Guy S. Liu
Peking University HSBC Business School, Foxcombe Hall, Boars Hill, Oxford OX1 5HR, The UK.
Recent Global Research Developments in Global Impact of the Chinese Debt Trap
Narrative Measurement:
Unlike previous research that focused on China’s lending practices and strategic intentions, this study measured the debt trap diplomacy narrative [1].
Using Google Trends search results from February 2018 to November 2021, the study created weekly time series data to track this narrative.
Contributions to the Narrative:
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) narrative and the China threat narrative significantly contribute to the debt trap diplomacy narrative.
Interestingly, these relations are mainly driven by the English-speaking Indian public, while they are insignificant in the United States.
Methodological Innovation:
The study introduces a new quantitative approach to international relations, providing solid empirical evidence.
It employs an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to analyze the relationships.
Implications:
Understanding the dynamics of debt trap diplomacy is crucial for policymakers, academics, and think tanks.
The study sheds light on how narratives shape perceptions of China’s global lending practices.
References
- Liu, Kerry, The Chinese Debt Trap Diplomacy Narrative: An Empirical Analysis (October 12, 2022). Statistics, Politics, and Policy, 2022, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4469112 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4469112
- Andreas Kern, Bernhard Reinsberg, The Political Economy of Chinese Debt and International Monetary Fund Conditionality, Global Studies Quarterly, Volume 2, Issue 4, October 2022, ksac062, https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksac062
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