Time: 2PM – 3PM, Tuesday January 7, 2025

Venue: IB 2050

Speaker: Alex Wang, Professor of Law, Walter and Shirley Wang Chair in U.S.-China Relations and Communications and Faculty Co-Director, Emmett Institute on Climate Change & the Environment, UCLA

Abstract:

Chinese Global Environmentalism is the story of China’s embrace of green development on the global stage. Its historical evolution and motivations. The underlying governance mechanisms used to implement it. And most of all its implications for China’s rise and the natural environment. China’s turn toward green development is being carried out through (i) green ideology; (ii) green diplomacy; (iii) green development cooperation, and (iv) green economic statecraft. Ultimately, Chinese global environmentalism is a wide-ranging economic and political strategy to unsettle traditional views of China and bolster the legitimacy of Chinese power at home and abroad. While not without its fits and starts, this effort is allowing China to make inroads globally that are only just beginning to be appreciated.

Speaker’s Bio:

Alex Wang is a Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, a Faculty Co-Director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, and holds the Walter and Shirley Wang Chair in U.S.-China Relations and Communications.

His research focuses on the law and politics of Chinese environmental governance. Previous work has examined Chinese climate policy, U.S.-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.

At UCLA, he teaches courses in torts, Chinese law and politics, and environmental law. He has been a visiting assistant professor at UC Berkeley School of Law.

Prior to joining UCLA Law, he was a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) based in Beijing and the creator and founding director of NRDC’s China Environmental Law & Governance Project. In that capacity, 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 helped to establish NRDC’s Beijing office in 2006. He was a Fulbright Fellow to China from 2004-05.

He holds a J.D. from NYU School of Law and earned his B.S. in Biology from Duke University. He is 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.

This event is co-sponsored by the CSCC Governing China Cluster, and the Environmental Research Center.