David Fickling, Columnist

Coal’s Belt and Road Links Are Crumbling

In Pakistan, abundant renewables and falling prices are raising doubts about whether Chinese fossil-power projects make sense.

January 17, 2019 at 11:00 PM UTC

By David Fickling

David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering climate change and energy. Previously, he worked for Bloomberg News, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

Cough, cough.
Photographer: Asim Hafeez/Bloomberg

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When a giant infrastructure project in an emerging country doesn’t make sense these days, you can usually count on China’s Belt and Road to be on hand with a bailout check.

For the global coal industry, that prospect has been one of the last great hopes for demand growth. Chinese policy banks have committed some $45 billion to coal projects overseas since 2000, according to a Boston University database.