China's investments in renewable energy through the belt and road initiative stimulated local economy and employment: A case study of Pakistan.

Since China's announcement of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2015, much focus has been drawn on the environmental impacts of China's energy investments in the countries along the BRI. The economic and social impacts of these investments, which are also important for the wellbeing for local people, left largely uninvestigated. In this paper, we used China's renewable energy investments in Pakistan as a case study to investigate the contributions of these investments on local economy and employment. Through IO table analysis, we found that the 28 renewable power plant projects invested by China till now potentially provided 8905 jobs and generated around USD 39.8 million production values in related sectors in Pakistan, including USD 30.7 million from wind power plants development and 9.1 million from solar. When Chinese companies act as engineers and constructors, the increase of production value in relevant sectors in Pakistan (USD 6.05 million per 100 MW) are higher than wind power plant projects with other magnitude of engagement (3.82 million as a fully sponsor, 4.19 million as only finance supporter and 2.29 as equipment provider). Wind power plants will create more jobs and increase more production values than solar power plants. This study identifies the economic and social benefits of BRI renewable energy investments from China and the driving mechanism, thus providing basis for promoting renewable energy investments in countries like Pakistan so that they can gain new drive for social and economic growth from the global trend of low carbon transition.

Identifying the socioeconomic drivers of solid waste recycling in China for the period 2005-2017.

Solid waste recycling is crucial for easing China's resource constraints and for promoting the country's sustainable economic development. Previous studies regarding solid waste recycling have mainly assessed its economic value, the status quo, problems and challenges, however, little is known at this stage about its driving factors. The purpose of the current study is to identify the socioeconomic drivers of solid waste recycling, investigating it's evolution in China from 2005 to 2017. The study employs a systematic technique of input-output (IO) analysis and IO-based structural decomposition analysis (IO-SDA). Results reveal that China experienced an increase in the recycling of five types of solid waste, these include waste steel, waste nonferrous metals, waste plastics, waste paper and waste rubber for the period 2005-2017. The increase in solid waste recycling was driven mainly by fixed capital formation and exports, while urban household consumption was found to be a dominant driver due to China's increasing urban population. In order to better track and identify the recycling of solid waste, there is an urgent need to promote the classification of household solid waste at the national level. An increase of solid waste recycling was driven mainly by the growth of recycling intensity, population increase and changes in the structure of GDP, which was partly offset by per capita GDP changes. It is recommended that policy-makers increase the amount of investment in solid waste recycling capacity in rural areas so as to enhance recycling intensity contributing to the overall recycling effort.