Wawa Wang, director of Just Finance International, said Chinese funding continues to exacerbate the climate crisis in the Western Balkans, a region where Chinese loans can expand new coal projects.
Category: Press Coverage
China Dialogue: China’s overseas coal pledge yields mixed results in Serbia and Bosnia
The Balkan nations are among the first to feel effects of President Xi’s announcement of an end to support for coal projects, as struggles over energy transition persist.
Frankfurter Allgemeine: Frankfurter Allgemeine: Is China stopping investments in European coal-fired power plants?
“China will keine neuen Kohlekraftwerke im Ausland bauen. Opfer könnten nun Projekte auf dem Balkan werden. Umweltschützer sind erfreut, bleiben aber skeptisch.”
Capital Monitor: China is stopping financing coal power overseas – so what?
if the announcement only applies to projects announced from September 2021 onwards, it will have “very few climate-saving impacts because negotiation and implementation of any agreement for coal takes years” and the average coal-fired power plant operates for at least 40 years, says Wang Wawa, programme director at Just Finance International.
Balkan Insight: China in the Balkans – Controversy and Cost
Wawa Wang, a program director of Just Finance International, which researched the international track record of Chinese companies – including SOEs – operating in Serbia, said that Chinese companies were doing untold harm.
The Diplomat: Despite Xi’s Pledge, China Is Financing Coal Power Plants in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Despite a pledge to stop financing coal power abroad, overseas coal power plants financed by Chinese banks and state-owned enterprises are still moving forward – including in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Read the full story by Wawa Wang and Nils Resare in the Diplomat here.
South China Morning Post: Vietnamese workers at Chinese tyre factory in Serbia get back passports as activists call for human trafficking probe
Migrant workers say they face long hours in the cold and substandard living conditions for a job some were allegedly duped into after paying thousands of dollars
South China Morning Post: 5 things you need to know about China’s power crisis
“There is a transparency problem for China’s overseas coal deals,” said Wawa Wang, programme director at Just Finance. “It makes the monitoring of critical information specific to project appraisal, project status and financial disclosure difficult.”
Bloomberg: China Could Build New Coal Plants Overseas Even After Xi Pledge
“There is a transparency problem for China’s overseas coal deals,” said Wawa Wang, program director at Just Finance. “It makes the monitoring of critical information specific to project appraisal, project status and financial disclosure difficult.”
The Guardian: China pledge to stop funding coal projects ‘buys time for emissions target’
“While we welcome China’s pledge, we are waiting to see how much weight this announcement will hold,” said Wawa Wang, program director of Just Finance International. “Whether Beijing will deliver on this exit from building coal-fired power plants depends on whether it introduces a time-bound exit which reins in all forms of support – finance and construction combined – for all its overseas coal and associated projects.”