Chinese Global Environmentalism – Booktalk with Prof. Alex Wang

Event information

Organised by The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA, Institute of Area Studies at Leiden University, Leiden Asia Centre

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The environment was once one of China’s greatest weaknesses. It is now becoming a pillar of China’s global power.

Join us for a book talk with Alex Wang, Professor at UCLA School of Law, as he visits Leiden University to discuss his new book, Chinese Global Environmentalism.

Alex Wang will explore China’s significant global embrace of green development and how it is shaping environmental governance and global norms worldwide. Drawing on examples from investment, diplomacy, and development cooperation, he will examine how China promotes a distinct form of environmentalism globally. While this approach promises to advance important environmental and governance norms, it also reshapes others in ways that continue to raise critical questions and geopolitical tensions.

The talk will reflect on both the opportunities and challenges of China’s environmental leadership. Following the presentation, lecturer Shiming Yang and Professor Rogier Creemers will join for reflections based on their research, followed by a Q&A session.

This event is co-organised by The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA (Europe) and hosted by the Institute of Area Studies at Leiden University. It is a unique opportunity to hear from one of the leading voices in environmental law and global governance!

About the speaker(s)

Alex Wang

Alex Wang is a Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law and a Faculty Co-Director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
His research focuses on the law and politics of Chinese environmental governance. His work has examined Chinese climate policy, US-China environmental cooperation and competition, environmental bureaucracy, information disclosure, public interest litigation, the role of state-owned enterprises in environmental governance, and symbolic uses of governance reform.
Prior to joining UCLA Law, Alex Wang was a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) based in Beijing and the founding director of NRDC’s China Environmental Law & Governance Project. He worked with China’s government agencies, legal community, and environmental groups to improve environmental laws and strengthen the role of the public in environmental protection.
He is also a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the Council on Foreign Relations, a board member of the Environmental Law Institute, and a Co-Chair of the Faculty Advisory Committee of the California-China Climate Institute.

Shiming Yang

Shiming Yang is Assistant Professor in Global Political Economy of China at the Institute for Area Studies, Leiden University.
Her research focuses on environmental and climate policy, with particular attention to international negotiations and rising powers. Her book manuscript examines the environmental diplomacy of China and India, especially their growing divergence in ozone and climate negotiations and through transnational initiatives. Her current work studies multilateral climate negotiations outside the climate regime and international climate finance. She also examines China’s external political economy in sectors where technology, markets, and diplomacy intersect, including electric vehicles, cooling equipment, and vaccines.

Rogier Creemers

Rogier Creemers is a Lecturer in Modern Chinese Studies. With a background in Sinology and International Relations, and a PhD in Law, his research focuses on Chinese domestic digital technology policy, as well as China’s growing importance in global digital affairs. He is the principal investigator of the NWO Vidi Project “The Smart State: Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and the Law in China”. For the Leiden Asia Centre, he directs a project on China and global cybersecurity, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is also a co-founder of DigiChina, a joint initiative with Stanford University and New America.

Kate Mackintosh

Kate Mackintosh is Executive Director and Professor from Practice at UCLA’s The Promise Institute for Human Rights (Europe).
She has had an extensive career in human rights and international criminal justice, holding senior positions across civil society organizations, academia and the United Nations. She served on the International Council of Experts on the Investigation of Crimes Committed in Armed Conflict in Ukraine, as well as the Advisory Group for the International Criminal Court Prosecutor’s Policy on Environmental Crimes. She represented the State of Palestine at the International Court of Justice in the context of the Request for an Advisory Opinion on States’ responsibilities in the face of climate change. From 2020-2021 she was Deputy co-chair of the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide.