China has scrapped two-thirds of its planned overseas coal projects since President Xi Jinping pledged five years ago to stop building plants abroad, while stepping up the development of green energy in the Global South. Some 61.5 gigawatts of China-linked coal projects have been canceled, avoiding 6.4 billion tons of lifetime carbon emissions, according to a report Thursday from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and People of Asia for Climate Solutions. At the same time, 69.4 GW of renewable energy projects and 3.3 GW of nuclear power have become operational overseas. The clean energy generated by Chinese projects in Brazil, Tanzania and the United Arab Emirates has now surpassed the power lost from canceled coal plants, the report said. Still, the incomplete enforcement of the ban has left about 3 billion tons of emissions in train, with most of the capacity under construction in Indonesia. Off-grid, captive coal plants are the biggest issue, in large part because of private Chinese firms requiring power to operate mineral processing plants and industrial parks in the Southeast Asian country.

While Chinese state-owned enterprises and banks have made significant progress on the government’s commitments on both overseas coal shutdowns and increased renewable development, the plants still planned or under construction reveal significant gaps in the implementation of President Xi’s pledge,” said CREA China analyst Lizzie Frost.