Chinese overseas development funds: An assessment of their sustainability approaches

Mathias Larsen, Tancrède Voituriez () and Christoph Nedopil
Additional contact information
Mathias Larsen: CBS - Copenhagen Business School [Copenhagen]
Tancrède Voituriez: UMR ART-Dev - Acteurs, Ressources et Territoires dans le Développement - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - UPVM - Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 - UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UM - Université de Montpellier, Cirad-ES - Département Environnements et Sociétés - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement, IDDRI - Institut du Développement Durable et des Relations Internationales - Institut d'Études Politiques [IEP] - Paris
Christoph Nedopil: UCAS - University of Chinese Academy of Sciences [Beijing] - CAS - Chinese Academy of Sciences [Beijing]

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: A growing number of emerging economies receive significant parts of their overseas finance and investment from Chinese state-owned or state-linked institutions. While academic research has focused on how Chinese policy and state-owned banks approach sustainable development issues, Chinese sovereign-backed overseas development funds are a critical yet overlooked component. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by providing the first comprehensive overview of such funds regarding their scope, activities and capitalization, as well as by assessing the funds' policy approach to sustainability. Qualitative and quantitative data are collected from databases, funds' websites, newspaper articles and public statements in both Chinese and English to identify common features between funds and to analyse their sustainability policies in comparison with global best practices. The paper specifically analyses the funds' sustainability approaches rather than impact due to a lack of comprehensive data on the funds' investments. First, the paper finds that given their number, announced capital size of US$213 billion, geographic scope and sectorial focus, including on high-emissions projects such as mining, energy and heavy industry, the funds are influential players in global development finance. Second, regarding the funds' approaches to sustainability, the paper finds that the funds lack transparency about their policies and practices,

Keywords: investment funds; china; Sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-03-29
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban, nep-env, nep-fdg, nep-hme and nep-ppm
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://agroparistech.hal.science/hal-04052167v1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in Journal of International Development, 2023, ⟨10.1002/jid.3778⟩

Downloads: (external link)
https://agroparistech.hal.science/hal-04052167v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04052167

DOI: 10.1002/jid.3778

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().