Assessment of the green development level for participating countries in the Belt and Road initiative

Green Belt and Road development has gradually become a global consensus, and the quantitative assessment of the green development level constitutes the basis for building a green Belt and Road high-quality development path in practice. In this paper, the Belt and Road Green development index (BRGI) was proposed in three dimensions, i.e., green nature, green economy and green society, to evaluate the green development spatial and temporal characteristics of the 80 participating countries in the Belt and Road Initiative from 2010 to 2018, and based on the quadrant method, green development cooperation model was established. The results showed: (1) In 2018,the average BRGI of participating countries is 54.38, and more than half of the countries have not reached the average level; From a regional perspective, the green development level in Europe is the highest, followed by Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia, and it is the lowest in South Asia and Africa. (2) At the considered time scale, the green development level in the Belt and Road participation countries has been increased from 2010 to 2018. (3) The green Belt and Road development cooperation modes can be divided into the all-round high-level energy attraction cooperation model, systematic win–win cooperation model for the whole field, three-dimensional refined empowerment cooperation model and multilevel high-trust cooperation. According to the different cooperation modes, the study also provides policy recommendations to promote for green development.