While its domestic spending for dirty coal-fired power surges, China promises to boost green energy in its global Belt and Road Initiative.
China's President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday his nation's US$1 trillion global infrastructure program has shifted to a "philosophy of open, green and clean cooperation" that promotes connectivity and sustainability.
"China will work with its BRI partner countries to strengthen the building of multilateral cooperation platforms covering energy, taxation, finance, green development, disaster reduction, anti-corruption, think tank, media, culture and other fields," he told a summit in Beijing.
The summit marking BRI's 10-year anniversary notably drew Russia's President Vladimir Putin as a guest of honor among leaders and officials from 130 nations.
China to account for a fifth of all global coal power
After spending two-thirds of its Belt and Road energy financing on carbon-polluting oil and gas projects around the Asia-Pacific region, Xi promised two years that China would cease building coal power plants abroad.
He pledged an extra US$100 billion for Belt and Road development projects spread among 148 nations, mostly in Africa, Europe and Central Asia.
Coal still supplies a third of global electricity generation even though it's the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel, the International Energy Agency says. In the first half of 2023, China's domestic coal reliance rose to 243 gigawatts of capacity.
That's expected to rise to 392 GW, or nearly 20% of 2,100 GW in capacity from 2,400 coal-fired power plants in 79 nations, according to the Global Energy Monitor.
A 'doubled-edged debt trap'
China has long pushed back against international skepticism that its BRI, launched in 2013, spreads Chinese influence through so-called debt trap diplomacy.
Some nations have reduced their involvement after running into trouble repaying China's loans for projects usually overseen by Chinese state-run businesses. Italy, as the only G-7 nation to join the global pact, appears to be headed for the exits.
China lowered lending since 2017 to address the debt overhang, wrote University of Tokyo professor Toshiro Nishizawa, but the "double-edged debt trap" could hurt Beijing since the debt can be forgiven only at shareholder countries’ expense.
