BRI, BRICS, & Global South~

US trade war and illegal sanctions risk shortages in world’s top silicon-producing region. TOKYO — on 4 July 2021, the Nikkei Asia news outlet reported that US sanctions against the Chinese solar manufacturing industry “are now casting a shadow over the solar industry” and “one of the world’s biggest sources of silicon.” The article reported that “the price of silicon used to make polycrystalline wafers for solar panels now stands at […]

US trade war and illegal sanctions risk shortages in world’s top silicon-producing region. TOKYO — on 4 July 2021, the Nikkei Asia news outlet reported that US sanctions against the Chinese solar manufacturing industry “are now casting a shadow over the solar industry” and “one of the world’s biggest sources of silicon.” The article reported that “the price of silicon used to make polycrystalline wafers for solar panels now stands at […]

Vietnam has been a Southeast Asia solar success story. It went from having barely any generation in 2018 to a quarter of its total installed capacity being solar – a 100-fold increase in two years. This rapid growth is mainly down to the Vietnamese government’s feed-in tariff which provides a guaranteed above-market price for renewable energy producers; other incentives signed off in 2017 in an attempt to pivot away from lagging fossil fuel projects; and cheaper solar […]

No so long ago the Western news media was full of stories of how China was “ramping up coal power” and claims that this was a threat to achieving the Paris Climate Agreement targets. The story was run by the Financial Times and the UK Government controlled BBC, among others. Of course, the media versions ignored detail in the report that the stories were based on, Out of Step – […]

Central Asia’s largest wind power project with a generating capacity of 100 MW was connected to the grid on 20 June 2021. The power project, with a total of 40 wind turbines, near the city of Zhanatas, Kazakhstan was built by a Chinese firm and is jointly owned by local company Visor Kazakhstan and China Power International Holding. The joint venture is responsible for the development, construction and operation of the […]

CGTN reported on 29 June 2021 that China will launch a voluntary fishing moratorium on the high seas from July this year to preserve squid resources in open waters, according to China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs which regulates fishing. From July 1 to September 30, the fishing ban will be observed in part of the high seas of the Southwest Atlantic Ocean outside the exclusive economic zones of […]

(Note article first published 2 May 2021 in China Environment News) In February 2021, China’s embassy in Bangladesh sent a letter to the local Ministry of Finance stating that “the Chinese side shall no longer consider projects with high pollution and high energy consumption, such as coal mining [and] coal-fired power stations”. Why did China suddenly announce a coal investment phase-out in Bangladesh? In 2016, China and Bangladesh signed a […]

Environmental concerns The Sengwa coal fired power station project in Zimbabwe was being developed by RioEnergy, a unit of RioZim. Last year the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) was reported to have signed a formal notice of interest in funding the plant, to be constructed by China Gezhouba Group, while associated transmission lines would be built by Power Construction of China. However, it is understood that ICBC has […]