Revising the ‘host country standard’ principle: a step for China to align its overseas investment with the Paris Agreement
Revising the ‘host country standard’ principle: a step for China to align its overseas investment with the Paris Agreement
复制标题
修改“东道国标准”原则：中国海外投资与《巴黎协定》对接的一步
DOI：
10.1080/14693062.2019.1650702
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发表时间：
2019
期刊：
影响因子：
7.1
通讯作者：
M. Larsen
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
T. Voituriez;Wang Yao;M. Larsen
摘要2016年，中国海外投资流量（1830亿美元）和存量（4.7万亿美元）均创下历史新高，仅次于美国。令人担忧的一个主要原因在于中国海外投资组合的环境可持续性，而中国主要开发融资部门缺乏透明度又加剧了这一问题。本文旨在根据现有最佳估计数据，对中国海外投资和开发性金融组合中绿色金融的规模进行更新，并将这些数据纳入多边开发银行应对气候变化承诺和实践的更广泛视角。我们得出了中国开发银行可以采取的切实可行的政策建议，以进一步使中国的海外投资与巴黎协定的2°C目标保持一致，第一步是修改“东道国标准”原则，以确保中国开发银行在国外或国内使用两个环境标准中最严格的标准。中国各开发银行每年向发展中国家贷款、给予或投资380亿至450亿美元，但既没有详细说明《巴黎协定》的规定，也没有将其纳入其投资战略。中国对国内投资的监管和保护措施比对海外投资的严格得多，而且这种严格程度的差距近年来一直在扩大。作为使中国海外投资与《巴黎协定》保持一致的一步，中国开发银行可以修改“东道国标准原则”。相反，它们可以在两个国家-接受国或中国国内-中选择环境严格程度最高的国家，从而使海外环境法规和保障措施与国内适用的法规和保障措施相协调。
ABSTRACT China’s overseas investment flows (US$ 183 billion) and stock (US$ 4.7 trillion) reached a record peak in 2016, second only to those of the US. A major cause for concern lies in the environmental sustainability of China’s overseas investment portfolio, which is compounded by the lack of transparency of China’s main development finance arms. We intend in this paper to give an update on the magnitude of green finance in China’s overseas investment and development finance portfolio on the basis of the best available estimates, and to put these figures into a broader perspective of multilateral development banks’ commitments and practices to combat climate change. We derive practical policy recommendations that Chinese development banks could take to further align China’s overseas investment with the 2°C target of the Paris Agreement, with the first step being to revise the ‘host country standard’ principle, to ensure that Chinese development banks use the most stringent of the two environmental standards, abroad or at home. Key policy insights Chinese development banks lend, give or invest between US$ 38 billion and US$ 45 billion every year to developing countries, without either elaborating on, or integrating, the provisions of the Paris Agreement into their investment strategy. Regulations and safeguards are much more stringent for China’s domestic investment than for China’s overseas investment, and this stringency gap has been widening over recent years. As a step towards aligning Chinese overseas investment with the Paris Agreement, Chinese development banks could revise the ‘host country standard principle’. They could instead choose the highest among the two – recipient country or Chinese domestic – in terms of environmental stringency, consequently harmonizing overseas environmental regulation and safeguards with those that apply domestically.