In 2013, China proposed the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21^st Century Maritime Silk Road (the Belt and Road Initiative, hereinafter referred to as the BRI) in Kazakhstan and Indonesia. BRI is China's most ambitious economic project since the beginning of its reform and opening-up policy in 1978. China aims to bring in international partners to stimulate international trade and economic development in vast underdeveloped regions through a series of collaborative infrastructure projects (Huang, 2016). Specifically, BRI emphasizes “five connectivity”: policy coordination, connectivity of infrastructure, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and closer people-to-people ties. To support these goals, China has actively promoted regional cooperation in transport and energy infrastructure development. So far, 147 countries have joined BRI and it is estimated that China has funded around 2,970 Belt and Road projects globally valued at about $US4 trillion.

The BRI has attracted increasing international attention to its economic and geopolitical effects. Media discourse and academic research on the BRI are polarized. BRI will significantly reduce transport time and trade costs (Soyres et al., 2019), and increase trade flows by up to 4.1 percent (Baniya et al., 2020). GDP in participating countries will increase by up to 3.4 percent (Soyres et al., 2019) and could help lift 7.6 million people out from extreme poverty and 32 million out from moderate poverty (Maliszewska and Mensbrugghe, 2019). However, BRI also raises important questions about its environmental impacts. Critics argue that BRI could lead to increased global carbon emissions (Zhang et al., 2017), and may also promote permanent environmental degradation (Ascensão et al., 2018).

China recognizes the importance of the environment and has incorporated green strategies into BRI to formulate the Green Belt and Road Initiative. In 2017, the Chinese government issued the Guidance on Promoting the Green BRI, which clearly set out safeguards for the ecological environment. They led to the development of the Belt and Road Initiative International Green Development Coalition (BRIGC), and the formulation of the Green Investment Principles for Belt and Road (GIP). In 2021, the Asia and Pacific High-level Conference on Belt and Road Cooperation launched the Initiative for Belt and Road Partnership on Green Development. In 2022, the Chinese government further published its Views on the Joint Implementation of Green Development in the Belt and Road Initiative.

To provide comprehensive assessments for the green development of Belt and Road Initiative and the ways to promote green development, Wuhan University and Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy will jointly host the International Workshop on October 25, 2024. And the Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy set up the special issue “How Green is the Belt and Road Initiative”. Editors of the dedicated workshop at Wuhan University welcome scholars to submit papers that provide policy recommendations for the designing of green development in BRI. Papers recommended by the workshop will be fast-tracked for peer review. The papers will then undergo the normal JAPE review process.

Relevant themes include, but are not limited to, the following:

 Role of the BRI in green development of participating countries

 Theoretical basis for building the Green BRI

 Institutional architecture of the green BRI

 Assessment of measures and policies in Green BRI

 High-quality transformation and BRI

 Financing green development along the Belt and Road

 Fiscal policy and green development along the Belt and Road

 Green trade and green development along the Belt and Road

 Green investment and green development along the Belt and Road

 Carbon pricing and green development along the Belt and Road

 Renewable energy and green development along the Belt and Road

 Climate and environmental risk assessment on projects in BRI

 Challenges in green and low-carbon development

 Ways to promote environment-friendly and resilient infrastructure

 Policies to encourage green innovation in participating countries

 Policy communication and coordination on green development

 Environmental cooperation for green and sustainable development

Guest editors:

Assoc. Prof. Xiujie Tan, Wuhan University, China (Managing Guest Editor)

Prof. Yu Liu, Peking University, China

Prof. Shaozhou Qi, Wuhan University, China

Assoc. Prof. Banban Wang, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China

Assoc. Prof Ling Xiong, Wuhan University, China

Prof Xunpeng Shi, University of Technology, Sydney (Managing Guest Editor)

Timing:

In order to be eligible for submission to this special issue, an article must be first presented at the Wuhan University and Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy International Workshop. Please send in English a draft paper to greenbri@163.com.

Conference submission deadline: October 10, 2024.

Conference: October 25, 2024.

Open for Submission: November 30, 2024.

Submission deadline: February 28, 2025.