While the international community has high expectations for China to lead global environmental action amid geopolitical turbulence, the extent and nature of China’s efforts to lead international environmental cooperation remain understudied.

To address this knowledge gap, Dr Yixian Sun and his team at the University of Bath developed the ‘China's Global Environmental Leadership (CGEL) database’ and systematically assessed 293 China-led international environmental governance initiatives.

Dr Yixian Sun joins us to present the findings of their analysis and how China’s leadership activities are operated primarily through information sharing, capacity-building, and scientific knowledge production on Thursday 16 April, 5.30-6.30pm, King’s Building, KCL Strand.

This is an in-person event. Registration is required and those without tickets will not be admitted. Further details will be sent by email closer to the date.

About the speakers:

Dr Yixian Sun is an Associate Professor in International Development and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the University of Bath, United Kingdom. He received his BA from Nanjing University, PhD in International Relations/Political Science from Geneva Graduate Institute, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University. As a scholar of environmental governance and sustainable development, his research examines the changing role of emerging economies – especially China – in global environmental governance. Dr Sun is currently leading a £1.7 million UKRI-funded project on sustainability governance of China's global infrastructure investments (SGAIN). Dr Sun is a member of the Scientific Steering Committee for the Earth System Governance (ESG) Project - the world's largest research alliance on environmental governance, and an associate editor of Global Environmental Politics.

Dr Thomas White is a Lecturer in China and Sustainable Development at the Lau China Institute, King's College London. He has a PhD and MPhil in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge, and a BA from the University of Oxford. He is an Affiliate of the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit at the University of Cambridge. Thomas has previously worked at the University of Cambridge, and the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He studied for a Diploma in Mandarin at SOAS, before living and working for several years in China. His first monograph, China's Camel Country: Livestock and Nation-Building at a Pastoral Frontier, was published in 2024.

Please contact lauchina@kcl.ac.uk if you have any questions or specific participatory requirements.