cover image: U.S.-China Sustainable Infrastructure Collaborative Opportunities: Green Partnerships Must Begin in Africa

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U.S.-China Sustainable Infrastructure Collaborative Opportunities: Green Partnerships Must Begin in Africa

10 Jan 2022

Implementing sustainable farming practices and infrastructure development in Africa has been an ongoing challenge. Foreign resource extraction operations on the continent offer exchanges of raw materials for capital and critical infrastructure development. These infrastructure projects are crucial for cooperative economic development in Africa. However, the inattention to sustainability through the duration of projects is detrimental to biodiversity in the short run and to the habitat of all in the long run. While most nations agree that climate change is a serious problem and have taken steps to combat global emissions, there are still gaps in enforcement and a lack of effective partnerships due to security concerns and economic competition. China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been the pillar of its foreign investment policy, focused on creating supply chains and fostering diplomatic goodwill worldwide. In Africa, many believe China’s vast investments in infrastructure projects are filling a gap in foreign capital that Western countries have slacked on completing in recent years. While some argue that China’s investment practices are predatory, others point to cases where Chinese debt taken on by African countries has been successfully managed. However controversial the management of infrastructure funding might be, the Chinese have taken advantage of a critical need for capital to build their global supply chains. China’s BRI projects have had mixed success in sustainable implementation. Some projects, such as the Adama Wind Farm I in Ethiopia and the     financed by the Exim Bank of China, have successfully created new sources for green energy. Other projects, such as the establishment of the Chambishi Copper Mine in Zambia, are major sources of air and water pollution. The Chinese company running the mine, Nonferrous China Africa Mining (NFCA), has expanded operations without properly containing toxic industrial waste, leading to the damage of local crops and pollution of local water supplies. This environmental degradation can occur because African countries often lack the capacity to enforce strict environmental standards on foreign companies. Concurrent with this lack of capacity, African countries prefer not to seek capital from the IMF and World Bank for their heaviest infrastructure projects. This is due to the increased costs and time associated with adhering to the stricter environmental and social standards of these organizations. Instead, African countries turn to Chinese companies for funding and implementation, expecting a cheaper and faster turnaround without the imposition of such standards. While Chinese capital and project implementation may be more attractive, and therefore successful, unsustainable implementation now contradicts official Chinese government policies and international environmental initiatives. This past July, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China issued the “Green Development Guidelines for Foreign Investment and Cooperation.” The guidelines focus on both investment and trade, pushing for an environmentally friendly BRI where companies should “follow international green rules and standards” in their overseas economic activities. The United States has an opportunity to work closely with African nations and China to implement new infrastructure projects sustainably.

Authors

Hannah Bases

Published in
United States of America