"From pollution to solution: will China save the planet?" with Barbara Finamore

19 June 2019

Portrait of Dr Radhika Khosla

with Dr Radhika Khosla
 Associate Professor in the School of Geography and the Environment

Dr Radhika Khosla is the Research Director of the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development at Somerville College, and an Associate Professor at the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment, School of Geography and the Environment, at the Uni...

This is a joint book talk with The Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health at the Oxford Martin School

Now that Trump has turned the United States into a global climate outcast, will China take the lead in saving our planet from environmental catastrophe? Many signs point to yes. China, the world's largest carbon emitter, is leading a global clean energy revolution, phasing out coal consumption and leading the development of a global system of green finance.

But as leading China environmental expert and author of Will China Save the Planet? Barbara Finamore will explain in this talk, it is anything but easy. The fundamental economic and political challenges that China faces in addressing its domestic environmental crisis threaten to derail its low-carbon energy transition. Yet there is reason for hope. China's leaders understand that transforming the world's second largest economy from one dependent on highly polluting heavy industry to one focused on clean energy, services and innovation is essential, not only to the future of the planet, but to China's own prosperity.

We will also hear from respondent Radhika Khosla, Research Director at the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development, Somerville College.