Bjørn Leif Brauteseth

• Brauteset, Bjørn (2024). China’s Bilateral Investment Treaties with the Global South: Protecting Nature or Building Symbolic Legitimacy? Forum for Development Studies. ISSN 0803-9410. doi: 10.1080/08039410.2024.2443670. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This paper critically examines the integration of environmental protection language into China's Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) with African states, exploring the extent to which such language reflects international norms and contributes to China's legitimacy on the global stage. Through a legal analysis of four generations of Sino-African BITs, the study investigates the evolving environmental content within these agreements, particularly in the context of China's development discourse and its ecological ambitions. The research highlights the selective incorporation of environmental clauses, the challenges posed by authoritarian governance structures, and the implications for corporate social responsibility. Ultimately, the paper argues that while recent treaties demonstrate a shift towards acknowledging environmental concerns, the effectiveness of these reforms in fostering genuine environmental protection remains contingent upon the political will of both China and its African partners.

• Brauteseth, Bjorn Leif (2023). A Chinese Communist Party perspective on development and the environment: socialism through environmental development? Handbook of International Development and the Environment. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISSN 9781800883772. s. 100–120. doi: 10.4337/9781800883789. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Brauteset, Bjørn & Banik, Dan (2022). Transplanting China's ecological civilization to the Belt and Road Initiative: What will it take? Journal of International Development. ISSN 0954-1748. s. 1–16. doi: 10.1002/jid.3698. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This article focuses on how Chinese state actors understand the concept of sustainable development and implement policies for achieving the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We examine the concept of Ecological Civilization (EC) that has gained momentum within China and examine how EC is constructed around certain organizational principles that are difficult to export without expanding Beijing's political control abroad. Based on the example of a coal-fired power plant in Kenya, we also explore the potential opportunities EC presents for African stakeholders to hold Chinese state actors to account for China's normative principles.

Se alle arbeider i NVA

• Brauteset, Bjørn (2022). Chinese Perspectives on Global Governance (SUM0429). Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Brauteset, Bjørn (2022). Socialist Rule of Law: A Search for Substantive and Procedural guarantees for building Ecological Civilization in Communist Party Regulations: Finding New ways of understanding Chinese law? Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Brauteset, Bjørn & Hansen, Arve (2022). Towards a Green China. [Internet]. https://newbooksnetwork.com/towards-a-green-china. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Brauteset, Bjørn (2022). Jointly Promoting a Global Ecological Civilization. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Brauteset, Bjørn (2021). Does China hold the key to global sustainability? Understanding Xi Jinping’s Ecological Civilization. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Brauteseth, Bjørn Leif (2026). Global Ecological Civilization and the Party-Law-State: Enhancing Conservation in Kenya and Zimbabwe? Universitetet i Oslo. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  China's Green Promise: Does It Travel? China is building roads, railways, and dams across Africa and beyond. But is it also exporting environmental protection? That is the question at the heart of this research. As China becomes one of the world's most powerful builders and lenders, understanding whether its environmental commitments are real or merely rhetorical, has consequences for the planet. A bold domestic vision Over the past decade, China has developed a bold domestic vision it calls "Ecological Civilization".Essentially, this is China’s own version of sustainable development. The Chinese government has pledged to bring this vision to its international projects too. This is particularly evident through the Belt and Road Initiative, a massive global infrastructure programme spanning dozens of countries. The question is whether this promise hold up in practice? A gap between narrative and reality This research followed the paper trail from Communist Party ideology, through Chinese national law, all the way to construction projects on the ground in Kenya and Zimbabwe. What it found is a significant gap between the narrative and the reality. China promotes ecological values in international agreements and policy documents, but when you look at actual investment projects in African countries, those values are not consistently applied. Overridden by ideology One key finding is that Chinese law abroad is never fully independent from Communist Party ideology. This matters because it means environmental protections can be overridden whenever they conflict with the Party's broader political and economic goals. The conclusion is that the legal tools are in place, but the political will to enforce them consistently does not yet follow.

Se alle arbeider i NVA