China is building a nuclear power plant in Argentina as it looks to Latin America
- New deal is the latest Chinese effort to engage with countries in the region using its cutting-edge clean energy technology
- But some projects have met opposition over environmental issues, and there is US pressure not to deepen ties with Beijing
Beijing and Buenos Aires agreed to cooperate on the project back in 2015, but progress had stalled until the contract was signed between state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation and Nucleoelectrica Argentina on January 31.
The two nations also agreed to cooperate on green development and the digital economy, as well as in the aerospace and agriculture industries.
Cui Shoujun, a professor at Renmin University of China in Beijing, said joining the belt and road during the Games was a “high profile” move by Argentina that signalled a desire to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties with China.
“This was a strategic choice by them,” he said.
China is seen as a promising investor and partner. While it is the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases it has also become the world leader in renewable energy capacity – solar, wind, hydro – as well as nuclear power and electric vehicles.
Argentina has policies in place to shift its energy use by seeking foreign investment in its wind, solar, small-scale hydroelectric and bioenergy sectors, according to Juliana Gonzalez Jauregui, a researcher at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences. It is also seeking investors to develop alternative energies such as nuclear plants, large hydropower facilities and hydrogen power.
Argentina’s move to join the belt and road could help China – seeking to expand its presence in Latin America – take a bigger role in the country’s renewable energy sector, Jauregui wrote in a paper on the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace website in December.
China has already made significant investments in the sector. They include the 300-megawatt Cauchari solar plant in Argentina’s northernmost province Jujuy, which opened in 2020 and is one of the region’s biggest. The Export-Import Bank of China financed 85 per cent of the US$390 million project, with the Jujuy government providing the rest through a green bond.
In the wind sector, China’s top turbine maker Goldwind has acquired four wind farms in the southern Chubut province and one in the north at Miramar in Buenos Aires province. All are now in commercial operation.
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China’s first Hualong One nuclear reactor begins commercial operations
But some Chinese energy projects have come up against opposition from residents and environmental groups, including the Hualong One nuclear power plant. The original plan to build it in Rio Negro was opposed by civil society groups and the province passed a law banning it.
A US$4.7 billion Chinese hydroelectric project in Santa Cruz, in the south, has also been controversial. The project, being carried out by a consortium led by state-run China Gezhouba Group, has been widely criticised for its negative environmental and social impacts. In December, the financing agreement was suspended and work on the dams has been halted, The Diplomat website reported.
Antonio Hsiang, a professor at La Academia Nacional de Estudios Politicos y Estrategicos (ANEPE) in Chile, said environmental issues were a big problem for Chinese investments in Latin America.
“You’ve seen a few successful cases but there are far more failed projects because of local residents’ opposition,” he said.
There is also pressure from the United States as China seeks to expand its influence in Latin America, a region the US sees as its “backyard”.
“There is clearly a pressure and threat by the US since 2017 – in some cases explicit, in some others implicit – not to deepen ties with China,” said Enrique Dussel Peters, head of the Centre for Chinese-Mexican Studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
