College
Arts and Sciences
Department
Political Science and Public Administration
Rank
Associate Professor
Environmental Determinants of Chinese Development Finance in Africa
Type of Work
Journal Article
Publication Information
Gellers, J.C. and Jeffords, C. (2019). Environmental Determinants of Chinese Development Finance in Africa. Journal of Environment and Development. 28(2): 111-141.
Description of Work
To what extent are decisions regarding Chinese investment in Africa motivated by environmental factors? A considerable body of work has examined the determinants of foreign aid among traditional donors, producing useful debates about the relative significance of recipient need or merit and donor interest. But far less scholarly effort has focused on the motivations of emerging donors and the role of environmental factors in influencing aid allocation. In an attempt to fill these gaps, this article uses statistical techniques to test the hypothesis that China deliberately invests in African countries with poor environmental performance for reasons related to recipient need or donor interest. Drawing upon project-level data regarding investments made by China in Africa from 2002 to 2012, the analysis suggests that Chinese development assistance grows commensurate with a country’s environmental performance, but only to a point. After a state achieves a certain level of environmental quality, Chinese investments decline.
Environmental Determinants of Chinese Development Finance in Africa
To what extent are decisions regarding Chinese investment in Africa motivated by environmental factors? A considerable body of work has examined the determinants of foreign aid among traditional donors, producing useful debates about the relative significance of recipient need or merit and donor interest. But far less scholarly effort has focused on the motivations of emerging donors and the role of environmental factors in influencing aid allocation. In an attempt to fill these gaps, this article uses statistical techniques to test the hypothesis that China deliberately invests in African countries with poor environmental performance for reasons related to recipient need or donor interest. Drawing upon project-level data regarding investments made by China in Africa from 2002 to 2012, the analysis suggests that Chinese development assistance grows commensurate with a country’s environmental performance, but only to a point. After a state achieves a certain level of environmental quality, Chinese investments decline.
Biographical Statement
Dr. Josh Gellers is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at UNF, Fulbright Scholar to Sri Lanka, and Research Fellow of the Earth System Governance Project. His research focuses on environmental politics, human rights, and technology. Dr. Gellers’s work has appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals and has been cited in seven UN reports. He is the author of The Global Emergence of Constitutional Environmental Rights (Routledge 2017). Dr. Gellers holds a B.A. in Political Science from UF, an M.A. in Climate and Society from Columbia, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from UC Irvine.