China Exim Bank

Bui Dam, now being built in Ghana with financial backing from China Exim Bank, is described by the project environmental assessment as having "minor" greenhouse gas impacts. In reality, it could end up becoming a major emitter of greenhouse gases, many times worse than a natural gas plant of a similar size.

China Exim Bank has rapidly grown to become the world's largest export credit agency. The Bank is financing Chinese exports and investment projects around the world, including in environmentally sensitive sectors such as hydropower, oil and gas, and mining.

China Exim Bank adopted an environmental policy in November 2004, and released it to the public in April 2007. Environmental Defense and International Rivers prepared detailed recommendations regarding how this policy can be strengthened

China is the country with the highest numbers of dams in the world, and in recent years, Chinese institutions have taken a lead in building dams not just domestically but also abroad. Chinese banks and companies are involved in constructing dozens of large dams outside of China,

The growing importance of China Exim Bank

In China, approximately one fifth of humanity lives on only 7% of the world’s cultivable land. The country does not have sufficient reserves of oil, timber or mineral resources to sustain its rapid economic growth. Foreign investment and trade contracts help to secure the resources which China lacks at home. Exports also help to overcome the permanent employment crisis which China’s rapid rural transformation has created.¹

Representatives of Western banks and export credit agencies frequently argue that their environmental policies are being undercut by financial institutions from middle–income countries, and particularly from China. It is ironic that the same banks miss no opportunity to provide finance to their competitors from China and other countries.