China Climate Alert is a weekly flagship product of Greennovation Hub, which aims to provide timely, effective and free news, analysis and resources for opinion leaders and decision makers in climate and energy sectors. Climate Alert focuses on key moments in global and domestic climate governance, and practices of exploring low-carbon economies at home and abroad. Our timely reporting and analysis with a global outlook aims to create an indispensable information platform for climate and energy stakeholders, to generate discussions about climate action and energy transformation among a wider audience, and to promote the society to form concerted efforts to cope with climate change. Since its commencement in 2013, Greennovation Hub has published more than 200 issues of China Climate Alert.

With Vietnam as an example, this report analyzes the status quo and trend of renewable energy and power planning, action against climate change, environmental laws & regulations and governance objectives, and cooperation with China in the field of energy and power under the BRI. It also discussed the barriers, risks and opportunities faced by China in its investment in renewable energy in Vietnam. While it also provides practical suggestions for the Chinese government, financial institutions, enterprises and the Vietnamese government on policy support, action is needed to promote China’s investments in renewable energy in Vietnam.

Despite the rise of renewable energy as a cost-effective alternative, Pakistan remains wedded to coal power for reasons that have little to do with economics.

With Vietnam, Indonesia and Pakistan as country case studies, the report examines the opportunities and challenges of BRI power investment under the Paris Agreement, to provide recommendations for Chinese policy makers and investors to align BRI investments with climate targets in the near and long term.

Green and Road Green Development Partnership looks forward to your attendance.

China has so far exceeded (low) expectations for cutting emissions — but can it save the planet?

In the last decade, Chinese enterprises actively explore and develop overseas business which promotes economic development and employment in the countries of investment. However, due to the lack of understanding on social and environmental regulations and cultures of target regions or countries, and required communication and information disclosure are not sufficient, some enterprises suffer economic and reputation losses. “Going out” also means “bringing in”, accumulating experience in environmental risk management investing responsibly and leading the global green economy transformation, are challenges faced with “going out”, but also a rare opportunity. Since 2013, we regularly issue “Observation on China Overseas Investment” focusing on China’s “going out” and the global ecological issues, showing diverse views, identifying real problems and solving them.

With Vietnam as an example, this report analyzes the status quo and trend of renewable energy and power planning, action against climate change, environmental laws & regulations and governance objectives, and cooperation with China in the field of energy and power under the BRI. It also discussed the barriers, risks and opportunities faced by China in its investment in renewable energy in Vietnam. While it also provides practical suggestions for the Chinese government, financial institutions, enterprises and the Vietnamese government on policy support, action is needed to promote China’s investments in renewable energy in Vietnam.

Difficulty in obtaining financing, or sovereign guarantees from host nations, is impacting on the‘bankability’of BRI renewables projects, report finds.

This report summaries the investment potential of renewable energy projects and the existing renewable energy programs invested by Chinese companies in the Belt and Road countries. According to the interviews with Chinese investment companies and financial institutions, this report analyzes and conducts a comparison with 25 cases of photovoltaic and wind projects along the Belt and Road countries. These projects locate in 17 different countries and areas in Asia, Europe, Africa and south America, and include different types of investors and financing models. Based on case study, interviews with Chinese investment companies and financial institutions, this report summarizes the main financing models, challenges and recommendations of Chinese companies when investing in renewable energy projects in BRI countries.

This webinar between the AIIB and the representatives of civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations and academia was held. Underpinned by recent analysis and research conducted by environmental institutions on opportunities and challenges for MDBs to be aligning with climate targets and regarding actions been taken, or committed to be taken by the AIIB, invited experts from climate, environmental and social sectors to respectively shared their related analysis, concerns and future plans. During the webinar, experts from the AIIB expressed the bank’s openness and welcomeness to civil society organization. Meanwhile, the participants reached common consensus of interests in having further and more in-depth dialogue and expand further engagement with the Bank.

Between July 12-13th, Luxembourg played host to the AIIB 4th Annual Meeting. The theme of the 2019 Annual Meeting was “Cooperation and Connectivity”, in recognition of the economic and social benefits to be realized through better connectivity within and between countries and regions, including Europe and Asia.

The Guangdong Ecological Livable City project was initiated and designed by Greenovation Hub and the Environmental Institute of the School of Philanthropy at Sun Yat-Sen University. This is the first report on eco-friendly and livable cities initiated and completed by a non-government organization (NGO) in China. Based on the data analysis and questionnaires conducted in 21 prefecture-level cities of Guangdong Province, the researchers have demonstrated the relationship between urban growth and environment and climate resilience. Based on this research, a ranking and assessment of each city has also been done. The purpose of the project is to promote city development which has an eco-friendly approach and contributes to the achievement of low carbon development. The project also aims to encourage the joint efforts of local government and the public in achieving these goals, and shares rankings and information about best practices in order to promote healthy competition between the cities covered by the project.

Blue Pulse: Marine Conservation Bulletin is a Bi-week electronic newsletter on science, management and policy relating to marine biodiversity. This newsletter provides a timely and multi-disciplinary updates on marine conservation to inform a vivid domestic debate.

The statements by national leaders at the UN Biodiversity Summit are an important “stocktaking of political will” in the lead-up to next year’s 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

With the United Nations Biodiversity Summit held last week, discussions on the process of biodiversity conservation are gaining momentum. While the annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) is approaching and discussions on the process of establishing marine protected areas in the Antarctic Peninsula are gathering momentum.

The impact of climate change on the polar oceans is once again the focus of Blue Pulse’s attention, along with our concern that the design and management of marine protected areas determines the costs and benefits of conservation.

This issue focuses on coral reefs and includes a discussion of coral reef responses to climate change from the perspectives of productivity, biodiversity, and fisheries.

This time we focus on the recent oil spill event in Mauritius, as well as environmental impacts of commercial seabed mining activities.

In order to reduce and avoid social and financial risks arising from environmental factors in China’s overseas investment , and guide domestic institutions to follow the Principles for Responsible Investment, further greening the BRI by fully integrating the notion of ecological civilization and low-carbon into the implementation，and contribute to achieving United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and goals of Paris Agreement, the Green Finance Committee of Finance Association of China (hereinafter referred to as the Green Finance Committee) established the Task Force on Environmental Risk Management for China’s Overseas Investment in 2017, a move under Environmental Risk Management Initiative for China’s Overseas Investment jointly launched by seven associations and committees subordinated to ministries. Subsequently, Environmental Risk Management Manual for China’s Overseas Investment (hereinafter referred to as the “Manual”) was finalized by the Task Force and was issued at the International Green Finance Forum hosted by Green Finance Committee in April 2018.Authored by GHub and supported by Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, this report, as the main part of the Manual, mainly includes the objective, scope and general guidelines for environmental risk management of China’s overseas investment, typical environmental risk identification and assessment cases of BRI countries, country-specific climate risk management cases, as well as international conventions, industry norms and national laws and regulations.

With the launch of “The Belt and Road Initiative”, it is important to figure out how China plays its leadership role to promote green development and low-carbon transformation for fair and effective global climate governance. From the perspective of sustainable development, our publications target folk communication and cooperation agendas on ecological and environmental protection, climate change response, green finance innovation and energy innovation, energy transformation and the exchange and cooperation among civil societies. We also aim to promote discussion and information sharing on national green development along the Belt and Road and to form innovative, independent, high quality and practical researches and suggestions for China to improve its leadership in global green governance.