Impact of China's Belt and Road Initiative investments on climate risk mitigation in partner countries
The Belt and Road Initiative(BRI)is a significant focal point in the construction of a human community with a shared fu-ture.However,many BRI partner countries are located in climate-sensitive areas.There are doubts and criticisms about the BRI,sug-gesting that its infrastructure projects might increase the vulnerability to climate change in the BRI partner countries.To address this controversy,this study investigated the role of China′s outward foreign direct investment(OFDI)in enhancing the ability of these coun-tries to cope with climate change risks and examined the underlying mechanisms of this impact.Using panel data from 65 BRI partner countries spanning 2004-2020,the study evaluated the impact of China′s OFDI on the partner countries′ ability to cope with climate change risks,with the climate change vulnerability risk of each country as the explanatory variable.The findings indicated that:① Chi-na′s OFDI in the Belt and Road region significantly mitigated the climate change vulnerability risks of the partner countries and im-proved their climate risk coping capacity in the context of the intensifying global climate change crisis.② The effect of China′s BRI in-vestment on reducing local climate change vulnerability risks was more significant in low-and middle-income countries,China′s neighboring countries,and countries with which China had established free trade agreements.③ The income growth effect and political stability effect partially explained the impact of China′s BRI investments,aligning with the important concepts of sharing development results and promoting global governance under the BRI.④ China′s BRI investments did not exacerbate local carbon emissions while re-ducing the vulnerability to climate change in the participating countries,indicating that China′s BRI investments did not trigger the'carbon emission transfer'problem blamed by Western countries,and green has always been the defining feature of the BRI.This study provides empirical support for understanding the role of China′s Belt and Road Initiative and policy recommendations for further promoting the initiative.
Belt and Road Initiativeoutward foreign direct investmentclimate change vulnerabilityclimate governance
万方数据
