China. Africa, and the Environment

 Global Voices posted on 7 September 2025 a commentary titled "How Is Africa Benefiting from China's Global Renewable Push?" by Jean Sovon and Vivian Wu.

China positions itself as a champion for renewable energy in Africa while financing large projects that exploit coal and oil.  The authors ask how African countries can reconcile a partnership aimed at implementing the principles of environmental justice.  

Ethiopia Signs $1.7 Billion in Investment Deals, Mostly with Chinese Companies

 Reuters published on 14 May 2025 an article titled "Ethiopia Agrees Minerals, Energy Deals Worth $1.7 Billion, Chiefly with Chinese Companies" by Dawit Endeshaw.  

Companies attending a two-day investment conference in Addis Ababa signed agreements valued at $1.7 billion for a variety of mineral, coal, and solar energy deals.  Chinese companies were well represented.  

Financing African Energy Projects

 The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published in November 2023 a paper titled "Who Finances Energy Projects in Africa?" by Oyintarelado Moses.  

The largest energy finance providers in Africa between 2012 and 2021 were China, World Bank, Italy, France, and the United States.  The top African recipients of energy during these years were Egypt, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, and Angola.  

China's Global Energy Finance Database

 The Global Development Policy Center at Boston University published in November 2023 a policy brief titled "Green Horizons? China's Global Energy Finance in 2022" by Cecilia Springer, Ishana Ratan, Yudong Nathan Liu, and Jia Gu.  

From 2000-2022, the China Development Bank and China Export-Import Bank provided 331 loans totaling $225 billion for 65 public borrowers for energy projects around the world.  2022 marked the second year in a row that China's development finance institutions did not issue new loan commitments for the overseas energy sector.

Despite the decline since 2016 in loan commitments and size, the amount of energy finance China provided surpassed the energy sector lending offered to public entities by any other global lender. The largest share of existing loan commitments by China has been to exploration and extraction projects in the energy sector.  

Power generation received the second largest amount of lending commitments across energy subsectors.  In terms of energy source, fossil fuels received the most support with coal, oil, and gas representing 73 percent of the lending.  Oil was the largest energy source by amount of finance, followed by gas and liquefied natural gas.  

China's commitments to stepping up support for green and low-carbon energy have yet to emerge in the form of development finance.  

Results of Treasury Secretary Yellen's Trip to Africa

 The US Institute of Peace published on 1 February 2023 a commentary titled "Four Takeaways from Treasury Secretary Yellen's Trip to Africa" by Edward A. Burrier.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's 10-day trip to Senegal, Zambia, and South Africa resulted in the following 4 takeaways:

--Because of its young population, the United States recognizes that "Africa will shape the trajectory of the world economy over the next century."

--Zambia's debt crisis has far-reaching implications and China is a "barrier" to resolving it.

--Energy transitions in countries like South Africa, which use considerable coal, will be challenged by vested political interests.

--Ending Russia's war on Ukraine is the single best way to help Africa's economies.  

China's Loans to Africa's Energy Sector

 Boston University's Global Development Policy Center posted on 17 November 2022 a study titled "Towards a Solutions-Oriented Approach: China, Africa and Energy Transition Narrative Building" by Maureen Heydt.  

China's policy bank loans in Africa have generally supported fossil energy, although hydropower makes up a significant portion of China's lending to African energy projects.  

US Navy to Establish New Red Sea Task Force

 Defense News published on 13 April 2022 an article titled "Combined Maritime Forces Establishes New Naval Group to Patrol Red Sea Region" by Megan Eckstein.  

The multinational Combined Maritime Forces in the Middle East will stand up a new Combined Task Force-153 to address maritime threats in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.  The U.S. Navy will lead the task force initially, but will hand leadership over to a regional partner.  At any given time, the task force will consist of two to eight ships, which is not an increase in the present number of ships in the region but an effort to improve coordination and effectiveness.  They will operate from the Suez Canal through the Bab el-Mandeb strait to the Yemen-Oman border and will address human trafficking and smuggling of both legal materials like coal and illegal weapons and drugs.  

Comparing China's Coal-powered Plants in Zimbabwe and Indonesia

 The South African Institute of International Affairs published in December 2021 a policy briefing titled "China-Driven Coal Power: Lessons from Zimbabwe and Indonesia" by Xue Gong and Cobus van Staden.

The paper compares Chinese funded and built coal electricity projects in Indonesia and Zimbabwe.  Whereas Indonesia has managed to limit the environmental impacts of coal electricity to some extent, the same is not true for Zimbabwe.  The technology and mitigation measures were much more advanced in Indonesia than in Zimbabwe.  Nor was socio-economic mitigation high on the agenda in the case of Zimbabwe.  Chinese firms in Zimbabwe seemed to respond to low levels of  Zimbabwe government standard setting and high levels of secrecy.  

China Pulling Back from Financing Coal Power in Africa and Elsewhere

 The Green Belt and Road Initiative Center published on 16 June 2021 a report titled "Brief: Coal Phase-out in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): An Analysis of Chinese-backed Coal Power from 2014-2020" by Christopher Nedopil Wang.  

Between 2014 and 2020, China shelved about half of its Chinese-financed coal-fired plants globally.  Zimbabwe was a big loser in the effort to reduce coal power.  Other African countries with distressed coal investments with Chinese participation were Egypt, Botswana, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Sudan, and Zambia.  

China, Coal, and Climate Change in Africa

 The ChinaAfrica Project posted on 25 June 2021 an analysis titled "The Impact of China's Financing for Coal on Climate Change and Agriculture in Africa" by King Carl Tornam Duho, Ghana-based economic consultant.  

The author notes that in spite of China's commitment to climate-friendly policies, it continues to fund coal projects worldwide, including in Africa.  The pollution caused by coal-burning plants has a detrimental impact on crop production, which harms African agriculture.  

China Seeks Carbon Neutral Environment at Home But Pushes Dirty Coal Plants in Africa

 CNN Business posted on 10 December 2020 a story titled "Activists Are Fighting for a Renewable Future in Sub-Saharan Africa. Chinese Coal Projects Threaten to Dirty Those Plans" by Eoin McSweeney.

Chinese companies continue to push the construction of coal power plants in Africa despite objections from environmentalists and Xi Jinping's call early this year for green development and carbon neutrality in China by 2060.  African governments have been eager to move forward with cheap, dirty energy projects that only Chinese banks will finance.  

China Moves to Equity Investment in Foreign Coal Power Projects

Panda Paw Dragon Claw recently posted an analysis titled "How China's Power Companies Invest Overseas" by Wang Yan and Li Danqing, both climate campaigners with extensive experience in Chinese overseas energy investment.

The authors look at China's construction of foreign coal power projects from 2009 to 2018. Until 2012, all of the projects were based on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) with no equity investment. In 2012, these projects witnessed the first equity investment and by 2018 equity investment had surpassed the EPC model. Most of the coal power plants were built in South Asia and Seutheast Asia. Ghana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique and Madagascar accounted for far fewer projects. Equity investment involves more risk for China. The building of coal power plants also raises serious concerns about air pollution and climate change.

Chinese Energy Financing in Africa

Boston University's Global Development Policy Center published in February 2019 a report titled "Global Risks and Investment Uncertainty: Chinese Global Energy Finance in 2018" by Xinyue Ma, Kevin P. Gallagher, and Xintong Bu.

The report notes that of China's global energy financing between 2008 and 2012, Africa received on average 7 percent of the total. Between 2013 and 2017, this percentage increased to 20 percent annually. In 2018, Africa received almost $4.8 billion of a global total of $8.6 billion or about 55 percent. Chinese energy loans to Africa in 2018 were used primarily for coal and hydropower power generation.

China's Infrastructure Financing for Africa Falls in 2016

The Abidjan-based Infrastructure Consortium for Africa published in 2017 its "Infrastructure Financing Trends in Africa -- 2016" report. It contains a section on Chinese financing of infrastructure in Africa.

Chinese funding of Africa's infrastructure has fluctuated significantly in recent years, with the 2016 figure of $6.4 billion following a high of $20 billion in 2015 and a low of $3.1 billion in 2014. Between 2011 and 2016, Chinese financing has averaged $12 billion annually.

China's Development Finance in the Global Energy Sector

The Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI) at Boston University published a paper in 2016 titled "Fueling Growth and Financing Risk: The Benefits and Risks of China's Development Finance in the Global Energy Sector" by Kevin P. Gallagher, Rohini Kamal, Yongzhong Wang, and Yanning Chen.

The paper provides estimates of China's global developmental finance institutions and its policy bank lending to foreign governments for energy. China is poised to be the largest development lender in the world as Western-backed multilateral development banks appear stalled in their ability to increase their capital bases. While the study looks a China's global energy financing, it contains useful information about energy financing in Africa. Six African countries--Ethiopia, Niger, Sudan, Ghana, Zambia, and Tanzania--are among the 20 top global recipients of Chinese energy finance. Most of the global financing has gone into power generation (80 percent), transmission and distribution (13 percent), and extraction and refining (7 percent). In the case of power generation, 66 percent financed projects in the coal sector, 27 percent hydropower, and the remainder in oil, gas, and wind.

This paper is part of the GEGI interactive database on China's Global Energy Finance.

China, Kenya, and Coal-powered Electricity

Quartz Africa published on 28 July 2016 an article titled "The Worst Thing about Kenya's New Power Plant Isn't that Chinese Workers Are Being Brought in To Build It" by Lily Kuo.

While China has been criticized for bringing Chinese workers to Kenya to build a coal-fired power plant, the author argues that the more important concern is that Kenya is building an environmentally unsound power project.

Indian Investment in Africa

Fahamu published on 17 September 2015 a summary titled "Indian Investment in Africa January 2003 to July 2015" of a report done by fdimarkets.com.  You can access the entire report at the bottom of the Fahamu article.

Between January 2003 and July 2015 the survey identified 383 FDI projects, which accounted for a total capital investment of $55 billion.  South Africa received one-fifth of the projects.  Other leading recipients were Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Tanzania, and Ethiopia.  Most of the projects were in the field of financial services although most of the capital went into coal, oil, and natural gas projects.  If this report is accurate, then India's FDI in Africa far exceeds China's FDI in Africa based on official Chinese statistics.