Emissions from China-invested overseas coal plants equal to Spain | Climate News

Fossil fuels produce around half of the energy from overseas Chinese-backed power plants, new study shows.

Carbon dioxide emissions from China-invested power plants overseas now stand at an estimated 245m tonnes per year, about the same as the annual energy-related CO2 emissions from countries the size of Spain or Thailand, new research shows.

Chinese companies and government-run investment banks have financed a total of 171.6 gigawatts of overseas power generation capacity, representing a total of 648 power plants in 92 countries, new research from Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center showed on Tuesday.

“While China has taken steps to decarbonize its overseas investments … more can be done to decarbonize China’s global power, including a particular focus on decarbonizing Asia, where the most generating capacity is financed by China and over 50 percent is…