Transplanting China's ecological civilization to the Belt and Road Initiative: What will it take?

Abstract

This article focuses on how Chinese state actors understand the concept of sustainable development and implement policies for achieving the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We examine the concept of Ecological Civilization (EC) that has gained momentum within China and examine how EC is constructed around certain organizational principles that are difficult to export without expanding Beijing's political control abroad. Based on the example of a coal-fired power plant in Kenya, we also explore the potential opportunities EC presents for African stakeholders to hold Chinese state actors to account for China's normative principles.