"What China and California have in common — the Amazon?", 14 Jun 2017

…[B]efore making California an enthusiastic partner of China on climate action, [Gov. Jerry] Brown must address the significant climate impact of China’s foreign investments and of California’s contributions to those impact…Ecuador is opening up new, pristine Amazon indigenous rainforest territory to oil drilling, funded and propelled by China...Since 2010, the China Development Bank and China Export-Import Bank have provided $15.2 billion in loans.

Many of these loans must be paid by the sale of oil or fuel from Ecuador’s state-run Petroecuador to China’s state-run PetroChina International…Instead of going to China, however, roughly 60 percent of Ecuador’s Amazon crude makes its way to the US, and more than half of that to California…

The impacts of drilling in the Amazon rainforest are dire both for its world-renowned biodiversity…and its indigenous peoples, many of whom have long rejected controversial drilling plans on their lands. These forests and people already suffered through the world’s largest environmental disaster in history due to previous oil drilling by companies like Texaco (now Chevron) and state-run oil companies…

…[I]t is important for California to look elsewhere for willing and able partners. But the state must assess the full climate impacts of its own supply chains, and assure that its partners do, in fact, have a commitment to global climate leadership. With so much Amazon crude coming to California, spurred by Chinese investments, Brown has an incredible opportunity to contribute to the protection of the Amazon rainforest…