Project

China Global and Regional Knowledge Sharing

At a Glance

Strategic Outcomes
Start Date Q1  2017
End Date
Funding Source Core
Actual Budget (USD) 1,497,000
Budget Percentage %
Actual Expenditure (USD)
Status Active
GGGI Share (USD)
Poverty and Gender Policy Markers
Name of Client (Lead/Prime implementer if GGGI is part of a consortium)
Participating Organization (Funding/donor)
Name of consortium members, if any
Thematic Area
  • Cross Cutting
GGGI Project Code :
Project Manager and Staff +

Project Rationale

China is the world’s second-largest economy, the largest emerging economy, and largest GHG emitter and energy consumer. A series of national responses culminating in a shift toward sustainable development in 2009 has propelled China to become a global leader in both clean energy and economic development strategies. As of 2014, China has deployed more solar and wind capacity than any country in the world, adding an estimated 17.5 Gigawatts of solar energy by the end of 201548. China invested more than double, or $83.3 billion, versus the $38.3 billion49 US investment in clean energy, making it by far the world’s largest clean energy investor. China has positioned itself as a world leader in both manufacturing and deployment of clean energy technologies.

China’s central planning institutions have identified clean technologies as a major aspect of their development plans moving forward, set on predicating their economic growth on “industries of the future”. By definition, China’s national plans are emblematic of aggressive green growth.

Through the “New China” model adopted in 2015, China has expanded and revamped its efforts at international economic expansion, including strong renewed support for South-South Collaboration (SSC). Yet, while China has global aspirations toward harmonizing its rapidly developing green industry with overseas cooperation, these developments are still in their early stages. The problem remains that China lacks institutions, channels, and platforms through which to systematize and accelerate learning and sharing of green growth knowledge and projects overseas.

GGGI’s mission, capacity, and membership make it an ideal partner for China in this endeavor. To address this need, in partnership with China, GGGI will seek to help the country maximize its Global and Regional Knowledge Sharing capacity with the goal of accelerating knowledge of green growth, investments, and projects in China, as well as other countries around the world.

Building on 2015-16 Work

As of 2015-16, GGPI has cooperated with its Chinese partner institutes to conduct sub-national programs in the Yunnan province and with selected Chinese cities. These projects piloted several sustainable cities policy concepts that will feed into Knowledge Sharing activities in 2017-2018, including Green Cities regional policy events being planned by KSD.

The 2016 work also kicked off cooperation with China’s Energy Research Institute (ERI) on low-carbon guidelines for greening China’s overseas investments. This knowledge product will inform large state-owned enterprises, international financial institutions, as well as country recipients of foreign direct investment capital on policies and concepts facilitating green capital development. This project will feed directly into 2017-2018 Knowledge Sharing activities aimed at scaling up these guidelines to direct customized aid to GGGI’s partner countries in strengthening both project bankability and low-carbon development, concurrently.

In delivering the 2015-16 WPB, GGGI partnered with the four leading agencies in China: the China Council for International Cooperation in Environment and Development (CCICED); the Policy Research Center of Environment and Economy (PRCEE); the Development Research Center (DRC) of the State Council; and the Energy Resource Institute of National Development and Reform Commission (ERI-NDRC). The partnerships built during this work have laid the foundation for the 2017-18 China WPB focus on global and regional knowledge sharing.

Delivery Strategy

PROJECT OUTPUTS FOR 2017-18:

  • In collaboration with Chinese partners, collect, process, and store Chinese experience of relevant South South Cooperation activities relevant to GGGI’s service offerings
  • Engage Chinese experts for joint studies to identify, compile, and disseminate successful Chinese green growth practices for possible replication under the framework of South-South Cooperation

PROJECT OUTCOMES FOR 2017-18:

  • China’s green growth experiences and lessons are documented and shared
  • GGGI’s South-South Cooperation programs are designed and executed jointly by GGGI and Chinese experts

Planned Results

The overall outcome of the project is to drive global and regional knowledge sharing by documenting China’s green growth experience and achieving improved green growth knowledge and skills in event participants. GGGI will achieve this by delivering the following three outputs in collaboration with counterparts in China:

Chinese experiences relevant to South-South Cooperation activities and GGGI’s service offerings are collected, processed and stored in collaboration with Chinese partners. GGGI will build partnerships and collaborations with China-based ministries and relevant organizations in order to develop knowledge sharing resources. These activities will include the collection, analysis, and development of best practices of Chinese and global experience of green growth initiatives. GGGI will also identify, customize, and share green growth policy and planning tools for global use through the Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP), and will support the global project on knowledge sharing. This will be based on China’s direct experience and will allow China to play a leadership role showcasing successes and lessons learned.

Green growth lessons are documented through joint studies. To complement the delivery of the output above, GGGI will work with China-based experts and institutes on the development and adoption of three joint studies on regional applications of Chinese best-practices. The aim of these studies will be to consolidate and customize Chinese successes and best practices into regional applications through collaboration with regional country partners. The three topics proposed are:

  • Green Cities policy and project implementation and development.
  • Early experiences on greening overseas investment and FDI in specific country contexts.
  • Rapid Renewables Deployment Lessons from China: highlights and pitfalls.