Venue: IB 2050

Time: 10:00-11:30, Wednesday November 1st

Host: Prof. Coraline Goron, Ph.D.

Speaker: Prof. Tyler Harlan, Ph.D.

Dr. Tyler Harlan is an Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Loyola Marymount University and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Melbourne. This event is part of the lecture series of the Governing China Cluster under the Center for the Study of Contemporary China, Duke Kunshan University.

Abstract

Long reliant on coal, Asia’s megacities are poised to accelerate their energy transition in the coming decades. To meet ambitious emissions reduction targets, governments are looking to electricity imports. This talk investigates the political economy of these emerging energy flows, with examples drawn from Shanghai and Singapore, and introduces a framework based on the powershed, defined as the material and socio-political infrastructure linking electricity supply and demand areas.

This talk has two aims. The first is to determine how and why long-distance power transfers are organized and maintained by cities and the rural regions that supply them with energy. The second is to assess the role of China – the world’s largest renewable energy generator – as both a model for and driver of these new powersheds. Through these aims, this talk seeks to advance a research agenda on new power geographies of energy transition, while generating empirical and policy-relevant knowledge about how to equitably mitigate climate change in the Asia Pacific.

This event is organized by CSCC Governing China Research Cluster and co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Contemporary China, and the Environment Research Center.