Christoph Nedopil

Griffith University

Key findings • 10 years after the announcement of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), cumulative BRI engagement breached the USD 1 trillion mark (USD1.016 trillion), with about USD596 in construction contracts, and USD420 in non-financial investments; • China's energy related engagement in the first half of 2023 were the greenest in any 6-month per...

We deploy a prompt-augmented GPT-4 model to distill comprehensive datasets on the global application of debt-for-nature swaps (DNS), a pivotal financial tool for environmental conservation. Our analysis includes 195 nations and identifies 21 countries that have not yet used DNS before as prime candidates for DNS. A significant proportion demonstrat...

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This study examines whether and how green overseas economic engagement impacts public perception in host countries as a form of soft power. We build an extensive country-level dataset on Chinese bilateral engagement in 32 African countries from 2015 to 2019 and use a fixed-effect model. We find that increased investment in green energy improves the...

With the ongoing sovereign debt and biodiversity crises in many emerging economies, applications of debt-for-nature swaps as a dual solution for sovereign debt and nature conservation have been re-emerging. We analyze how debt-for-nature swaps (DNS) can be scaled to protect biodiversity priority areas and reduce debt burden. We build a dataset for...

Many developing low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in the Asia-Pacific region are confronted with the dual challenges of greater sovereign debt distress – exacerbated by global shocks including COVID-19 – and environmental risk through climate change and biodiversity loss. Without an effective solution to the debt crisis and significant addit...

The report explores how SOEs can develop and deploy sustainable financial instruments, in particular green bonds, to help finance their green transition. To accelerate the successful adoption of green finance tools in Asia's emerging economies, the publication examines how their SOEs can improve operations to make better use of green capital market...

A growing number of emerging economies receive significant parts of their overseas finance and investment from Chinese state‐owned or state‐linked institutions. While academic research has focused on how Chinese policy and state‐owned banks approach sustainable development issues, Chinese sovereign‐backed overseas development funds are a critical y...

China achieved an important climate milestone in September 2021 when it unilaterally announced that it would stop building new coal-fired power plants abroad. A belief that this was driven by climate considerations and international pressure overlooks a distinctive dichotomy: China announced its overseas coal exit while not changing its basic appro...

Key findings • BRI finance and investments is steady in 2022 at USD67.8 billion, compared to USD68.7 billion in 2021; • Investments as a share of BRI engagement reached record levels at 48%, up from 29% in 2021 and compared to an average of 40%; • Since 2013, cumulative BRI engagement amounts to USD962 billion, about USD573 billion in construction...

As the world’s largest bilateral creditor nation, China may be considering strategies and plans for debt reorganization for some of its most important, and most debt stressed, BRI country partners. The world is experiencing the worst sovereign debt crisis in a generation, and China is in a key role to consider various solutions to address this cris...

Key findings • BRI finance and investments is steady at low levels in the first half of 2022 at US$28.4 billion (compared to US$29.6 billion in the first half of 2021), 42% through investments; • Since 2013, cumulative BRI engagement amounts to US$932 billion, about US$561 billion in construction contracts, and US$371 billion in non-financial inves...

Many financing decisions continue to exacerbate global biodiversity loss, despite a growing understanding of the economic and financial risks of biodiversity loss. Applying Coase's financial decision‐making theory based on cost, revenues, and risks, the article analyzes literature and current developments of biodiversity finance and green finance t...

Initiated in 2017 and formally established in 2020, the Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance (MCDF) is the latest addition to the development finance landscape in Asia. This article provides an in‐depth analysis of MCDFʼs potential to offer additionality in development finance and its political legitimacy by comparing it to 18 de...

With the upcoming launch of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and an accelerating sovereign debt crisis in many emerging economies related to COVID19, we analyze how the resurgent call for debt-for-nature swaps could conserve currently unprotected biodiversity priority-areas for six biomes and support debt restructuring in 67 countries un...

This report describes China's financial engagement in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) from 2013 to 2021

Since 2013, Chinese and foreign partners have been actively exploring through policy release, joint research, dialogue and exchange, and capacity building to promote the development of green finance, strengthen the BRI ecological and environmental risk prevention and management, further improve the green investment and financing system, and continu...

An analysis of the operationalisation of sustainable transport connectivity along the CCWA Economic Corridor has been carried out by ESCAP in 2020-2021. It covers issues relating to the status of soft and hard transport infrastructure, to green investments and the usage of smart transport technologies. The results are compiled in two reports. First...

In this paper, I study why and how China uses green overseas finance in its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to build soft power. I apply Miskimmon et al.’s framework, which postulates that soft power is built on ‘signals' and ‘action’: I study eleven relevant Chinese BRI government and sector-led signals in green BRI development and analyze Chinese...

Key findings • BRI finance and investments continued to drop in the first half of 2021 to US$19.3 billion (compared to US$27.5 billion in the first half of 2020); • No coal projects received financing or investments in the first half of 2021; • Green energy finance and investments in H1 2021 dropped by 90% compared to H1 2020; • Oil-related finance...

China, as the world’s largest emitter, has seen significant developments of its ETS in the past years and its ETS development is expected to influence climate action around the world, particularly for its neighboring countries. Against this backdrop, this report analyses whether China’s climate ambition and ETS development can drive regional harmon...

(1) Background: Green finance standards have proliferated with much need for harmonization to accelerate global green financial flows. However, little is known on the nature of green finance standards that accelerates differentiation, rather than harmonization. Therefore, we embark to answer the question what the nature of green finance standards i...

This report analyses the 2020 trends in Chinese investments in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It analyzes overall trends, regional and country investments, investments trends in different sectors, such as energy and renewable energy, transport, and provides and overview of the major players. The report also compares China’s investments in the...

Highlights As debt sustainability challenges in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries continue to mount, we argue that debt-for-nature swaps (instead of debt-for-resources and debt-for-equity swaps) are an important tool to facilitate the restructuring of current debt and also support green recovery and development. The concept of debt-for-n...

Executive Summary China is a major lender for countries of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, many of these countries have seen their sovereign debt become unsustainable. Based on the analysis of debt in 52 Selected BRI countries from 2014 to 2019, this brief presents the following findings:  Already in 2014...

Achieving the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is said to require USD 5–7 trillion of investments in areas such as health, education, environmental protection, and infrastructure. While several frameworks exist to mobilize and to some extent report on sustainable finance, stakeholders have no agreement how to identify SDG-a...

Achieving the United Nation's (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is said to require USD 5-7 trillion of investments in areas such as health and education, environmental protection, infrastructure. While several frameworks exist to mobilize and to some extend report on sustainable finance, stakeholders have no agreement how to identify SDG-al...

This brief analyses Chinese investments in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the first half of 2020 during the covid-19 pandemic. It finds that investments were down by 50% compared to the first half of 2019 across all sectors except mining. However, green energy investments now take up more than 50% of energy-related BRI investments

The purpose of this paper is to build an index that can quantitatively measure the quality of institutions in countries of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for attracting, safeguarding and accelerating international green business activities driven by overseas direct investment (ODI). First, the paper documents the specific circumstances of Chine...

The year 2020 has proven to be more turbulent than anyone could have expected, and it is only June. While in February we asked if 2020 would be the year of China’s global green leadership, hoping that the Covid-19 virus outbreak would be short-lived, by March we already we had to incorporate broader-than-expected fallout in our possible green scena...

The SDGs are a global pledge to end to poverty, reduce inequality and protect our planet for future generations, by the year 2030. This calls for unprecedented investments and cooperation across all of society – including governments, communities, civil society and the private sector. This is already changing ‘business as usual,’ by putting the SDG...

and Road Initiative (BRI) provide ample opportunities for economic growth, high returns on investments and social development. At the same time, investments for development will lead to an acceleration of pollution, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and loss of biodiversity if we follow current trajectories. Simply said, current policies and investmen...

The Chinese driven Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has the potential to strongly alter transportation in cities along the BRI corridors. By investing billions of dollars in BRI countries China hopes to accelerate physical and digital connectivity between China and the BRI countries for improved economic activity. As a consequence, many BRI cities, a...

The Chinese driven Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has the potential to strongly alter transportation in cities along the BRI corridors. By investing billions of dollars in BRI countries China hopes to accelerate physical and digital connectivity between China and the BRI countries for improved economic activity. As a consequence, many BRI cities, a...

Greening urban transport is paramount to achieving global climate targets. With urban population increasing by 2.5 billion people, particularly in many countries of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), much hope is put on green mobility technologies and innovation. Their application depends on the availability of investments and smart policies. In t...

Leading up to the 2019 Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, various working groups, published accounts of the past achievements and challenges of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This article analyzes the suggestions of the Advisory Council of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation and explains the background of the sustainability cha...

To assess, comprehend and analyse transport in a global 21st century context, it is imperative to look towards China. As China’s economy grew from 158 billion EUR in 1978 to around 10.7 trillion EUR in 2017, its transport sector has undergone a monumental mobility transformation and now leads the world in terms of sheer scale (World Bank, 2019a). W...

Often called the third sector, non-profit organizations are positioned between the private sector and the core public administration, resulting in a vast diversity of organizations that cover between 15% and 25% of the economy. In many countries the church, for example, is the single largest employer. Such organization Cross can match any company r...

Identifying user-friendly use cases for technologies under development is often a difficult endeavor, especially when designing healing environments for the elderly, due to the absence of comparable technologies and the little technology experience in the target group. The principles of user centered design (UCD) have been successfully applied with...

Die Studie „Die mobile ,Generation Plus’ – Anforderungen und Potenziale mobiler Apps“ wurde von den Deutsche Telekom Laboratories zusammen mit der YOUSE GmbH durchgeführt. Im Zeitraum von Oktober 2010 bis Februar 2011 wurden Bedürfnisse von Menschen über 50 Jahre in Bezug auf mobile Applikationen ergründet und die Potenziale in diesem noch jungen M...

Angesichts des demografischen Wandels gewinnt die Generation Plus als Zielgruppe verstärkt an Relevanz – auch für digitale soziale Netzwerke. Doch ist die Usability von Facebook & Co. für die Senioren auch ansprechend? Welche Aufgaben und Funktionen soll das digitale Netzwerk überhaupt erfüllen? Eine Einhaltung von Usability-Richtlinien kommt allen...

If there was any further need to prove the interconnectedness of our global economy, the biggest financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression has delivered it. In previous crises, a variety of boundaries – in the housing, banking and industry sectors, as well as between nations, or at least regions – confined and limited the impact of a...

Ziel der Studie "Nutzerabhängige Innovationsbarrieren im Bereich Altersgerechter Assistenzsysteme" im Rahmen der Begleitforschung AAL ist es, die 18 vom BMBF geförderten Projekte zum Thema Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) durch ein Instrument zu unterstützen, das dazu beiträgt, die vielseitigen Innovationen der Projekte gezielt auf die Bedürfnisse der...

Combining rigorous academic research with the latest practical tools and techniques, this book explores the growing area of complextity management in business. Through a range of high quality international cases leading authors help students to understand how to manage organizations in unpredictable and complex business environments.

Navigating through Crises: A Handbook for Boards (hereinafter, the Handbook) has been prepared as part of IFC’s overall crisis-response program. The contents of the Handbook are based on empirical academic research and on the authors’ own practical experiences. Additionally, information about emerging-market companies’ actual crisis-management prac...

In der Wissenschaft konnte schon mehrmals konzeptionell und empirisch nachgewiesen warden, dass Corporate Governance einen Einfluss auf Unternehmensfinanzierung oder auch die Entwicklung von Finanzmärkten hat. Demnach wurde des öfteren vorgeschlagen Corporate Governance in einem Land oder einer Firma zu verbessern um nicht nur die Entwicklung von A...