G7 jumps on ‘green belt and road’ plan to counter China’s BRI

G7 nations are backing a western plan to hit back at China’s Belt and Road Initiative playing up the game with a ‘green belt and road’ and the mobilisation of billions of dollars to tackle climate change.

US president Joe Biden has led calls to offer poor countries a new source of infrastructure finance. China’s BRI is a source of finance for these poor countries that fall along the path of the Chinese plan to dominate the globe.

Biden is offering a “democratic” alternative to Chinese loans, which are seen in the west as a tool to spread Beijing’s influence. China is taking over assets in some countries that fail to pay up the loans. Biden will play this up by proposing a green package.

China has problems when it comes to picking a fight on climate change and the green challenge, or this is what the Western world believes. But the plan, ultimately, is to rival the BRI.

The UK is also backing the plan which would want richer countries to help to fund schemes that reduce carbon emissions. The talks took place during Sunday’s G7 summit.

UK’s Boris Johnson wants to focus on supporting green initiatives and has been wary of presenting the initiative as an “anti-China” effort. Brexit is perhaps also part of a plan to ‘work’ with China for the British PM.

British officials said they wanted the group of leading western economies to “show what we are for, not who we are against”.

The White House favours a wider package of infrastructure support and has been explicit about wanting to provide a counterweight to China’s influence.

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