China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been heralded as an ambitious, globe-spanning series of infrastructure projects and investments that will result in win-win cooperation between Beijing and the developing world. But when China promotes the initiative, BRI’s environmental impact is often left out of the conversation.
China-led infrastructure projects abroad often overlap with critical biodiversity sites, a World Wildlife Fund report found in 2017, and some projects have displaced local populations, worsened water quality, polluted nearby land, and influenced fragile ecosystems. China-backed projects usually simply hold themselves to the environmental standards of their host countries -- and these developing nations often prioritize economic development and profits over sustainable growth.
Chinese investment projects not only threaten local environments, but have become a major contributor to global climate change. Even as Japan and South Korea have announced in recent months plans to lower their investments in fossil fuel-burning projects abroad, China has shown no sign of following suit. In Southeast Asia, especially, there is no sign China will stop exporting and funding dangerous, polluting coal technology to the region.
“It’s definitely true that China is the main investor for coal in Southeast Asia,” said Isabella Suarez, a Philippines-based analyst for the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), speaking to RFA in April. “If you look at the overseas investment portfolio for Chinese coal, Indonesia and Vietnam are second- and third-highest in the world.”
China-backed projects are also fuelling concerns over air pollution in cities. Southeast Asian cities, including Jakarta and Hanoi, are regularly ranked among the most polluted in the world, and coal is a driver due to the proximity of existing and planned Chinese-funded coal plants.
Photo: Reuters
2 comments:
Belt and Road will lead to haven for China while many countries which have joined this initiative such as Cambodia will lead it straight to hell. It's a scam and a trap, only the retarded fools would fall for it.
Shit Na has never thought about the environment or the welfare of the people. What China thinks is Money.
In addition, the Chinese have been buying lands and properties in every country in the world.
Maybe in the future, the world becomes as one - like John Lennon had imagined.
And the world will be called China world.
Bull shit. The Chinese don't talk much but fuck like sewing machine. The evil Yuon also fuck like sewing machine.
Wishing Hell will take both the Chinese and Yuon Vietnamese to hell.
Post a Comment