Sustainable Futures (Jan 2020)
Energy, environment and sustainable development of the belt and road initiative: The Chinese scenario and Western contributions
Abstract
The Belt and Road Initiative has tremendously increased the interaction of China with the countries involved, pushing forward the integration and comparative phase, based on the main factors affecting the energy, environmental and development scenarios. The indicators of this process are strictly related to the environmental sustainability of projects and infrastructural initiatives which entail aspects regarding climate change, environmental impact, transport management, urbanization and effective utilization of energy. Through this osmotic program, which the Chinese government said in 2013 would be executed from east to west, the contributions Western countries may make to maximize the common efforts are foreseeably very important for the success of the whole BRI and, indirectly, for the harmonization of the very rapid Chinese growth. China held the first position in 2014 for electricity generation (5388 billion kwh/h) and coal production (4.27 billion short tons/year), as well as the second position for petroleum consumption. On the other hand, carbon dioxide emissions were 1.8 times those of the USA in 2015, and transport, urbanization and energy intensity still struggle to attain optimal levels. The quality of productive sectors, research and universities is still low in the world ranking, despite the huge efforts of the Chinese, due to a still slow and cumbersome internationalization process. This article aims to integrate the numerous excellent studies published in the last few years on sustainable development and energy effectiveness within the BRI (Table 1 provides some specific references), by carrying out a systematic analysis of the Chinese energy, environmental and sustainable landscape from a Western perspective, breaking the main areas of the Chinese scenario down into its components and identifying those where the contributions of Western countries can support the gaps coverage. In this respect, the change of viewpoint provided by this study may be beneficial to properly balance the BRI perspective along the east-west axis.
