On the financialisation of green: Chinese operations along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Project Information

CHINGREEN

Grant agreement ID: 101024555

DOI

10.3030/101024555

Project closed

EC signature date 22 March 2021

Start date 1 November 2021

End date 31 August 2025

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 267 282,24

EU contribution

€ 267 282,24

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITA CA' FOSCARI VENEZIA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CHINGREEN (On the financialisation of green: Chinese operations along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).)

Reporting period: 2023-11-01 to 2024-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The main issue and problem addressed in the project refers to the process of “financialization of nature” and explores how finance– in particular Chinese led– is creating new ways to capitalise on nature and nature related resources, with no real impact on the ground, local communities. This raises questions on processes of valuation, and standards with reference on how nature is “valued” across diverse cultural and geographical domains. Given the major Chinese role in the wider development of green finance, especially in the global south–the project addresses the way in which Chinese led green investments are conceived and deployed.



A deep understanding of the relationship between finance and nature is paramount to rethink the ways societies are responding to climate change and are implementing policies to steer investments from “brown” to “green” assets. This requires an approach to financial valuation that exceeds the economic criteria, and which also encompasses issues of sustainability, at both global and local perspectives.



The overall objectives of the project is to understand the typology and impact of Chinese green finance along the BRI. The research charts the ways in which Chinese capital is labelled as green and how it “lands” on the ground through specific financial instruments such as green bonds. This responds to the question of whether the special features of Chinese “green” financial capital are(re)shaping global green financial practices and thus the relationship between nature and finance This research agenda is articulated through four objectives:

1. Historical-Genealogical Formation: Through a genealogical method involving archival research and secondary data, explore how the meanings of “green” and “sustainability” originate in the Chinese context and how these are now attached to financial ends.

2. Standards and Value Creation: Through interviews with auditors, policy makers and financial experts, verify how “green” parameters are established and certified in the international financial markets, and how Chinese “green financial products” are valuated and traded across different regional and national “green taxonomies.”

3. Socio Spatial Impact: Through participatory methods, verify what new “green” solutions (if any) China is promising to export along the BRI. This will test the socio-economic impact of Chinese “green” financial instruments on the ground and how these are negotiated with local actors.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Publications (journal articles)

Dal Maso, G. (2025) “China as laboratory to renegotiate globalization”. «Dialogues in Human Geography». Article on how China functions as a testing ground for reshaping (green) financial global processes and ideas of globalization.
Dal Maso, G. (2024) “The time green finance exploits. Leveraging past infrastructures for future ‘green’ returns”. «Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie (Journal of Economic and Human Geography)». Article exploring how financial actors use historical infrastructures to generate returns from future-oriented ‘green’ investments. (paper awarded from TESG)


Forthcoming
Dal Maso, G. (2025) Green Finance and the Hidden Hand of Economic Planning: Rethinking Market Solutions to Climate and Capitalism. Antipode. Article analysing how green financial mechanisms resemble a for of planning governance which exceeds market solutions.
Dal Maso, G. and Bernards, N. (2026) The Antinomies of Green Fintech. Antipode. Article examining the contradiction of "green" value creation through digital/ fintech ecosystems.
Dal Maso, G. (2026) The making of a global green finance infrastructure: a Chinese green bond issuance amidst multiple crises” edited by Fan Yang in Envisioning Global China through “One Belt One Road”: Infrastructure, Representation, and Imagination. Chapter on the green dimension of the BRI.


Dissemination

Publications in Magazines/blogs
• Dal Maso G. (2022) ‘The Chingreen Project: “how green is China’s green finance"’. Ca’ Foscari News. Article on the Ca Foscari website where I explain the nature and scope of the Chingreen project.
• Dal Maso, G., Maresca, A. (2022) “The Capitalist Market Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis”. «Jacobin». Article on the mode in which green finance operates and which highlights the contradictions inherent in the process of financialization of nature.
• Dal Maso G., Maresca A. (2022) “Il ministero della Produzione Futura”. «Jacobin» Italia. (Italian translation of the same article. See above).
• Dal Maso, G. (2023) Interview with Robert Meister on his career trajectory and new book “Justice is an Option, a theory to democratize finance”. «Historical Materialism». Interview with philosopher Bob Meister on the role of finance in defining new political claims (based on previous work)

Outreach events

13/06/2024 - Discussing my work on "the antinomies of green fintech" at the Workshop on Sustainable Finance at the University of Vienna
Video 10/09/2023
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Overall, I have been participating to 5 public events, 8 international conferences, and 6 webinar/workshops.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

As illustrated, so far, the publications that already resulted from the project contributed to filling the existing knowledge gap which concerns the increasing role of green finance to capitalise on nature and nature related resources in diverse socio spatial contexts, with particular emphasis on China and South East Asia.




10.10 2025

the two articles on Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie and Dialogues in Human Geography have been published. A further article on green fintech has been submitted to Antipode. It advances debate on the relationship between value creation and sustainability in the digital world.
A further article on green finance and planning is forthcoming in Antipode, this advances debate on the rise of Green finance and planning drawing from China.

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