Driven by Steel Production, China’s Belt and Road Construction Carries a Heavy Climate Cost
Key takeaways
- Cutting the emissions will require stronger environmental policies and major investment in cleaner manufacturing technologies, two new studies concluded.
- The study, a global, project-level assessment of greenhouse gas emissions, tallied climate pollution linked to more than 700 Belt and Road construction projects across 105 countries.
- The Belt and Road Initiative is China’s trillion-dollar development effort designed to help expand Beijing’s global influence.
Why this matters: environmental and climate reporting with long-term consequences.
June 9, 2026 Share This Article Republish. A worker walks past molten steel at a factory in Huai'an, China, on July 22, 2025. Credit: CN-STR/AFP via Getty Images Related The Chinese Coal Offer Pakistan Couldn’t Afford But Didn’t Refuse China’s Clean Energy Investments Abroad Are a Boon for Climate, but Human Rights and the Environment Are a Different Story A Massive, Chinese-Backed Port in Peru Could Push the Amazon Rainforest Over the Edge Share This Article Republish Most Popular New BLM Grazing Rules Eliminate Tribal Buffalo From Public Lands A Water Crisis Has The ‘Poster Boys’ of Iowa Farming Ready to Talk Regulation Dolphins, Sharks, Turtles and Workers Are All Victims of Unregulated Squid Fleets China s Belt and Road Initiative, the world s largest ongoing infrastructure program, has a substantial climate impact. More than half its emissions stem from steel, the majority of which was produced in China.
Cutting the emissions will require stronger environmental policies and major investment in cleaner manufacturing technologies, two new studies concluded.
More than 130 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions are tied to the construction of transportation, energy, building and water projects that were part of China’s Belt and Road international development initiative from 2008 to 2024, according to a study published Monday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. The study, a global, project-level assessment of greenhouse gas emissions, tallied climate pollution linked to more than 700 Belt and Road construction projects across 105 countries.