A a child on a Saigon waterbus brandishes a pinwheel as he passes Landmark 81, Vietnam’s tallest building, in Ho Chi Minh City on June 6. While Vietnam has enormous potential for wind and solar power generation, funding for coal-power electricity plants under China’s Belt and Road Initiative could derail its renewable energy push. Photo: Reuters
Opinion
Opinion
The View
How China’s Belt and Road Initiative could lead Vietnam away from renewable energy and towards coal
- Even as China turns away from coal-fired power domestically, its financial institutions continue to fund coal plants overseas, including in countries like Vietnam, which have great potential for wind and solar power generation
A a child on a Saigon waterbus brandishes a pinwheel as he passes Landmark 81, Vietnam’s tallest building, in Ho Chi Minh City on June 6. While Vietnam has enormous potential for wind and solar power generation, funding for coal-power electricity plants under China’s Belt and Road Initiative could derail its renewable energy push. Photo: Reuters
Sunrise in Qatar, a Gulf state, where Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative is being actively realised. Photo: EPA
Opinion
Opinion
Oil is just the start of China’s belt and road interest in the Gulf
- Part of the reason for Beijing’s presence in the region is the pressing need to resolve its overcapacity problem, such as in the steel and concrete industries
- More than this, the belt and road strategy is also seeking to facilitate the flow of trade and investment with the Gulf, writes Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat
Sunrise in Qatar, a Gulf state, where Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative is being actively realised. Photo: EPA