In tandem with China’s growing clout in overseas investment is the rising environmental risk exposure confronting Chinese investors. Faced with such environmental challenges in host countries, China has developed and issued a host of green guidelines designed to improve the environmental performance of its overseas investment. However, these guidelines are mostly voluntary and challenging to implement due to a lack of well-designed tools.
Working in partnership with the International Environmental Cooperation Center (IECC) under the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment, this project aims to develop and promote an environmental risk rapid assessment tool for China’s overseas investment projects. The tool will better equip Chinese actors with the information to filter out projects with high environmental risk at an early stage and therefore reduce the environmental impact in the host countries.
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We are working with the International Environmental Cooperation Center (IECC) under the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment to develop and promote the Environmental Risk Screening Tool (ERST). This spatial analysis-based tool draws on authoritative global biodiversity datasets and provides a user-friendly and accessible platform that allows Chinese regulators, financial institutions, and investors to identify the potential environmental impact and risks of proposed investment projects. By weighing these risks and other factors, they can make more informed decisions about whether to proceed with the investment project. By filtering out high-risk projects, this tool can help Chinese investors steer clear of environmentally high-impact investment projects and, more importantly, it will help preserve precious ecosystems critical to local communities and global conservation.
The first iteration of the ERST tool was completed and installed at IECC in February 2019. We are now working with local partners in China to fine-tune further and enhance its functionality and adapt it for more extensive use among the targeted institutions.
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