Globalization of Chinese Development Finance for Energy

The global energy finance China provides through CDB and CHEXIM falls in the category of the country’s official development finance (ODF). To appraise the magnitude of Chinese ODF for foreign energy, this chapter has adopted the data set of China’s Global Energy Finance maintained by the Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI) of the Boston University because the official data are not available and its adoption addresses the weaknesses associated with the four independent efforts that track Chinese ODF for energy around. This dataset reveals three stylized facts about Chinese ODF for energy worldwide in 2000–2017. First, it has maintained an overall upward trend for the past eighteen years, with its rapid expansion taking place in the aftermath of the 2007 global financial crisis. Second, it exhibits no distinct geographical pattern but is overwhelmingly titled toward fossil fuels. Finally, CDB dwarfs CHEXIM as a provider of Chinese ODF for energy worldwide.