Home economy heterogeneity in the determinants of China’s inward foreign direct investment

Technology and finance have emerged as critical factors in the transition to a low-carbon economy, and thereby in international climate change negotiations. A potential source of such resources, that is already having an impact in countries around the world through foreign direct investment (FDI), is transnational corporations (TNCs). The scale and scope of this phenomenon remains under research, including sector-specific drivers pushing firms to invest abroad and the determinants leading to investments in specific host economies. This paper seeks to shed light on these issues through an analysis of FDI in renewable electricity generation and the manufacture of related equipment. FDI in these areas has grown tremendously over the period 2003–2010. Using a framework developed in the World Investment Report 2010, the contribution of various drivers and determinants are discussed as they relate to the observed trends in FDI. The findings suggest that those governments seeking to target FDI as a source of external climate change finance must be mindful in particular of the motivations of the investors they are targeting, as well as the state of their domestic energy policies.