TY - JOUR
T1 - A Greening Dragon in the Desert? China’s Role in the Geopolitical Ecology of Decarbonisation in the Eastern Mediterranean
AU - Hoffmann, Clemens
AU - Ergenc, Ceren
N1 - Funding Information:
The green projects are also funded by the green bonds issued by the Chinese banks. Therefore, the higher-income countries are now in full-circuit with China by receiving both the technologies and the investment. This is why it is not a dependency relationship as showcased in the EU-China Climate Summit. In contrast, the lower-income BRI countries’ infrastructure projects are funded through regular debt and equity finance channels, and used for brown projects like coal power, oil and gas exploration, and mining. Yet loans for these projects are still subject to green financial regulations—known as green credit guidelines—set out by China’s Banking and Regulatory Commission (CBRC) and individual policy and commercial banks. The implementation of green credit guidelines is spotty at best, and ignored at worst. Chinese lending institutions have little communication and engagement with non-government stakeholders in host countries, limiting their ability to enforce guidelines or ensure adequate third party social and environmental impact assessments. Moreover, the green conditionality imposed on the Middle East and East Mediterranean partners forces the target countries to purchase China’s green bonds without a confirmed prospect of green investment. In fact, many countries in the MENA and East Mediterranean region witness stalled negotiations in green investments.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2023/1/2
Y1 - 2023/1/2
N2 - The new geopolitics of energy in the Eastern Mediterranean is not determined by hydrocarbons anymore. A significant expansion of renewables is underway. Driven by a surge in ‘Green Finance’ and decarbonization policies, this development changes conventional relationships of dependency. This takes place in an environment, where Asian and Western energy security strategies rapidly evolve in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean play a central role in this repositioning. China, far from merely being a dinosaur, is the largest producer of renewable energy. It also invests in infrastructure abroad, including Egypt. The largest Arab nation not only seeks to become a global energy hub, but also a decarbonization champion, as reflected in the hosting of COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh. This article will look at these developments, including its internal and external contradictions to understand the motivation behind China’s commitment to Egyptian solar expansion. It will demonstrate that, while part of a global political economy of decarbonization, China’s main motivation for investing in renewables in the Eastern Mediterranean remains geostrategic, tied to its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This, in turn, informs how we think of the Geo-Political Ecology of Decarbonization in the region.
AB - The new geopolitics of energy in the Eastern Mediterranean is not determined by hydrocarbons anymore. A significant expansion of renewables is underway. Driven by a surge in ‘Green Finance’ and decarbonization policies, this development changes conventional relationships of dependency. This takes place in an environment, where Asian and Western energy security strategies rapidly evolve in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean play a central role in this repositioning. China, far from merely being a dinosaur, is the largest producer of renewable energy. It also invests in infrastructure abroad, including Egypt. The largest Arab nation not only seeks to become a global energy hub, but also a decarbonization champion, as reflected in the hosting of COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh. This article will look at these developments, including its internal and external contradictions to understand the motivation behind China’s commitment to Egyptian solar expansion. It will demonstrate that, while part of a global political economy of decarbonization, China’s main motivation for investing in renewables in the Eastern Mediterranean remains geostrategic, tied to its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This, in turn, informs how we think of the Geo-Political Ecology of Decarbonization in the region.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85141018240
U2 - 10.1080/19448953.2022.2131079
DO - 10.1080/19448953.2022.2131079
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85141018240
SN - 1944-8953
VL - 25
SP - 82
EP - 101
JO - Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies
JF - Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies
IS - 1
ER -
SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy