In 2013, China launched an ambitious foreign policy initiative that will greatly influence the future of global trade, particularly in Asia, Africa and Europe—the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This initiative involves a massive development of trade routes between and within these regions, referencing the historic Silk Road, but on a much broader scale. According to the Chinese government, at least 64 other countries are expected to participate, involving roughly two-thirds of the global population and one-third of the global economy 1. The BRI involves a largescale expansion of land transportation infrastructure (the Silk Road Economic Belt component), coupled with the development of new ports in the Pacific and Indian oceans (the twenty-first-century Maritime Silk Road component; Fig. 1). These new infrastructures are expected to facilitate regional and intercontinental trade flow, and increase oil and gas supply. Core … Palabras clave: Environmental impact assessment