Geneva, Switzerland – 23 March 2018 – Ms. Weikang (Ella) Wang, China Program Manager participated in the Geneva Forum for Sustainable Infrastructure in Gland, Switzerland and gave a presentation on GGGI’s in-country approach to greening the Belt and Road Initiative investment.
This forum, co-hosted by the UN Environment, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the University of Geneva (UNIGE), was aimed at sharing experiences and ideas of making infrastructure projects contribute to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Over 70 participants ranging from government officials, financial investors, international organizations, research institutions, and NGOs have illustrated the application of science and policy tools for making existing or new infrastructure sustainable, covering the economic, social and environmental dimensions.
Ms. Weikang (Ella) Wang, Program Manager of the GGGI China team moderated a session where transport sector cases in road, rail, port and economic corridors were shared and the tool for valuing sustainable infrastructure was introduced. The discussion centered around the evaluation of the projects’ environment impact, and the challenges to balance the economic development and environment sustainability.
In the session entitled “Towards sustainable Infrastructure – greening the investment,” Ms. Wang was invited to give a presentation on GGGI’s in-country approach in greening the BRI investment. She introduced GGGI’s value chain to support developing and emerging countries to achieve their climate commitments and SDGs, and the role that GGGI plays in policy suggestions and project deployment. Specifically, she introduced that the China program is committed to facilitating Chinese investment and technology to other developing countries under the Belt and Road Initiative and prioritizes potential projects in land restoration, water and waste treatment, renewable energy, and energy efficiency projects. Besides, she also introduced the possibility of introducing technology and investment from other countries into China.
At the same time, Ms. Wang has also raised concerns that the financial scale from the demand side doesn’t match the supply side, sovereign guarantee is not available for some of the developing countries and multi-stakeholder management is difficult for Chinese investors. She ended the presentation by calling for more policy support and active partnership among all stakeholders to support the project deployment.
GGGI’s in-country approach as well as the effort to translate policy into on-ground projects have gained a lot of appreciation, and attracted great interest from different stakeholders including UNEP, UNCTAD, China-ASEAN Environment Cooperation Center, OECD, WWF, friends of the Earth, and Broad Group. More cooperation is expected between the GGGI China Program and these stakeholders to work together towards greening Belt and Road investment.
Ms. Weikang (Ella) Wang delivers a presentation – Greening the Belt and Road Investment: GGGI’s in-country approach, in Gland, Geneva on March 23,, 2018.