Moving the Green Belt and Road Initiative: From Words to Actions

This executive summary analyzes the alignment of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) investments in energy and transportation between 2014 and 2017 with the low-carbon goals of participating countries' Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). It finds that despite high-level green objectives, the majority of investments remained tied to fossil fuels and traditional infrastructure, while suggesting that targeting special funds toward climate finance could significantly catalyze low-carbon development.

• Between 2014 and 2017, the vast majority of Chinese energy-sector investments through major banks, the Silk Road Fund, and state-owned enterprises were directed toward fossil fuels rather than low-carbon priorities. Specifically, 91 percent of syndicated loans from six major Chinese banks, 93 percent of Silk Road Fund investments, and 95 percent of state-owned enterprise cross-border energy investments were in fossil fuels. In contrast, 64 percent of cross-border energy investments by privately owned enterprises were in renewable energy.
• Chinese investments in BRI countries have grown rapidly, with the volume of energy and transportation syndicated loans involving major Chinese banks being three times larger from 2015 to 2017 than from 2012 to 2014. While overall Chinese global Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) decreased by nearly 20 percent in 2017, OFDI specifically to BRI countries grew by 31.5 percent.
• The document suggests that if China applied a 25 percent climate finance target to its BRI special funds—similar to targets used by Multilateral Development Banks—it could provide over $28 billion in additional support for climate finance and NDC priorities. This amount is comparable to the $35 billion in climate finance lent globally by MDBs in 2017.
• Current Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in BRI countries often lack the quantitative detail necessary to guide investors toward specific low-carbon technologies. Only 55 percent of BRI countries provide quantifiable contributions in their NDCs for the energy sector, and the available information is often inconsistent in structure and detail.
• In the transportation sector, Chinese investments have primarily focused on traditional infrastructure such as road construction, airports, aircraft financing, and automotive manufacturing, rather than lower-carbon alternatives like railways or urban public transit.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Moving the Green Belt and Road Initiative: From Words to Actions. https://www.wri.org/research/moving-green-belt-and-road-initiative-words-actions

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Moving the Green Belt and Road Initiative: From Words to Actions. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/moving-green-belt-and-road-initiative-words-actions.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Moving the Green Belt and Road Initiative: From Words to Actions |url=https://www.wri.org/research/moving-green-belt-and-road-initiative-words-actions |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendmoving, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Moving the Green Belt and Road Initiative: From Words to Actions}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/moving-green-belt-and-road-initiative-words-actions}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }