China’s Green Belt and Road Push Leaves Plenty of Grey Areas

(Bloomberg) — Since China launched the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, the project has come under criticism for funding polluting activities overseas. That’s started to change with President Xi Jinping’s recent pledge to stop supporting foreign coal projects.

In the past 10 months, top government departments have released three documents laying out how it plans to make the initiative more environmentally friendly. The most recent set of instructions, released in March from agencies including the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planner, asked for “clear progress toward a green” Belt and Road. The NDRC also reaffirmed that China will “completely stop building new projects,” echoing Xi’s announcement ahead of last year’s United Nations climate summit.