China Exim Bank

In August 2007 China Export and Import Bank issued Guidelines for Environmental and Social Impact Assessments of the China Export and Import Bank’s (China EXIM Bank) Loan Projects. These guidelines are an improvement over the Bank's 2004 environmental policy, which was released to the public in April 2007.

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 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 at least 97 large dams in 37 different countries,

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.