Podcast
Environment China
Hosted by Beijing Energy Network · EN
Environment China is a bilingual podcast from the Beijing Energy Network. The show features conversations with advocates, entrepreneurs, and experts working in the environmental field in China.
14episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
The Role of Local Leaders in China's Low-Carbon Transition - with Weila Gong
3w ago00:37:01Tap to summarizeToday's episode turns to the topic of cities, and specifically the role of local officials and local bureaucracy in China's low-carbon transition. Local officials have tended to prioritize economic goals above all, even as the central government signals the importance of environmental and low-carbon policy -- including recently in a State Council decision establishing 14 indicators tying official promotion directly to progress on carbon emissions and low-carbon policy goals. This week we are joined by Weila Gong, who is nonresident scholar with the University of California-San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy's 21st Century China Center. She has over ten years of experience working on climate and environmental politics and policy with a focus on China. She received her PhD in Political Science from the Technical University of Munich's School of Governance and has held postdoctoral fellowships at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She was recently a climate policy fellow at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Weila Gong recently published a new book, Implementing a Low-Carbon Future: Climate Leadership in Chinese Cities, which draws over one hundred interviews in China and especially within four low-carbon city pilots. Her research seeks to open the "black box" of subnational climate policymaking, and why some cities are more successful than others at initiating and sustaining low-carbon policy action. For further reading: Weila Gong, Implementing a Low-Carbon Future: Climate Leadership in Chinese Cities, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, November 2025, at https://www.weilagong.com/book.html.
Transcribe →Mapping China's Overseas Financing - with Yunnan Chen and Teal Emery
Apr 1400:20:49Tap to summarizeIn this episode we continue our series on China's overseas investment trends. In the first episode, we talked with Christoph Nedopil about Chinese investment in the Belt-and Road Initiative (BRI) countries, how both green and dirty investments surged in 2025, and how big deals are back, as opposed to small-is-beautiful we heard a few years ago. In the second episode with Mathias Larsen, we delved into the regional aspects of China's overseas energy investments in batteries, EVs, solar and hydrogen. Today, we're going to go a step deeper, discussing a report published by ODI Global: "Greener on the other side? Mapping China's overseas co-financing and financial innovation." The report discusses the 'changing ecosystem' of China's overseas finance, pegging a part of that ecosystem as supporting green investment, while other parts do not. The report also discusses a 'mismatch' between some lending 'and the regions and sectors most in need of energy transition support.' Dr Yunnan Chen is a Research Fellow in ODI Global's Development and Public Finance program, where her work focuses on the changing global financial governance of development finance and export credit, and China's overseas finance in the global south. She obtained her PhD from Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies in Washington DC, where she was also a researcher at the SAIS China Africa Research Initiative (CARI), as well as with the BU Global Development Policy Center and the Center for Global Development (CGD). Teal Emery is the founder of Teal Insights, where he is building an open-source ecosystem of tools for sovereign debt and climate analysis. Previously, he spent seven years as an emerging markets sovereign research analyst at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, traveling regularly to China, Africa, the Middle East, and across the developing world. He has been looking at China's role in global finance for over a decade. He co-authored several papers on sovereign debt and sustainable finance at the World Bank. Today's episode covers: The new pressures that Chinese banks face, and how these pressures force them to take measures to reduce risks -- with implications for green lending. Why green lending is still dominated by multilateral development banks and development finance instead of by commercial banks. For green lending from China that does take place, what are the biggest mismatches between today's green lending and the actual need for green investment? The role of cooperation on project preparation, and specifically the MCDF (Multilateral Center for Development Finance), which was supposed to provide support for least developed countries to prepare projects for receiving green loans. We did have an unexpected guest on the programme today, a young infant who woke from a nap at just the wrong time! As a result, about 40 seconds of the program had to be cut out. The text from Yunnan Chen's final answer that got cut off was as follows: "If you look at what MCDF has been doing so far it's been quite successful in creating collaborations between MDBs and institutions in the global south. In terms of capacity it's small, its funds are in the tens of millions and it suffers from some of the same problems that some of these global project preparations have. It's small, there's too many of them and it's a very fragmented ecosystem." For further reading: Yunnan Chen and Teal Emery, "Greener on the Other Side? Mapping China's Overseas Co-financing and Financial Innovation," ODI Global, 2025, at https://odi.org/en/publications/greener-on-the-other-side-mapping-chinas-overseas-co-financing-and-financial-innovation/.
Transcribe →China's Green Leap Outward - with Mathias Larsen
Feb 1700:25:49Tap to summarizeToday, we're continuing our series on China's external investments in the energy field, focusing in particular on China's outbound investments in clean energy manufacturing. Our guest today is Mathias Larsen. Mathias is Senior Policy Fellow at LSE's Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change & the Environment, where he leads the Institute's work on China, and he also studies China's impact on other countries outside the global North, in particular, Vietnam, India, Ethiopia, and Brazil. His work focuses on the role of the state in ensuring financing for a green transition, covering central banking, fiscal policy, development finance, and other tools related to industrial policy. Mathias has a double PhD in international political economy from Copenhagen Business School and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a double Master's degree in international business and politics from Copenhagen Business School and Rotterdam School of Management, as well as a double Master's degree in international development from Sciences Po Paris and Peking University. He previously worked as a Postdoc at Brown University, at the International Institute of Green Finance, as well as at the UN in New York, Bangkok, and Nairobi. Topics we cover include: The trend change in China's green outbound investment that started in 2022. Which regions are attracting which kinds of investments. Whether countries are really seeing development opportunities in this stream of investment -- and what they can do to maximize their chances of development. China's central bank policies which include both national development priorities as well as macroeconomic stability, without the strict independence traditionally expected of central banks. Whether such policies could offer a lesson for others. China's outbound green hydrogen investments in the Mideast. Saudi Arabia's strategy on green hydrogen. For further reading: https://www.netzeropolicylab.com/china-green-leap https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2025/12/10/while-western-central-banks-hesitate-on-climate-chinas-acts/ https://www.carboun.com/china-hydrogen
Transcribe →China's Surging BRI Investments - with Christoph Nedopil-Wang
Feb 100:22:25Tap to summarizeIn today's episode, we take a deep dive into the latest stats on China's surging investments in the Belt-and-Road Initiative countries. Energy investment is up, but we learn that this was both the 'greenest and dirtiest' year for BRI investments ever. Even as China's oil demand stagnates, China's SOEs and construction companies are doing brisk business investing in oil and gas, even as CATL and Jinko Solar find deals and opportunities in Latin America and Africa. Our guest, Christoph Nedopil-Wang, is the director of the Griffith Asia Institute and Professor of Economics. Christoph engages in research related to sustainable finance and business in Asia and the Pacific, and he is particularly interested in the role of China in Asia's sustainable development with extensive engagement in green finance, green energy transition, green metals, climate smart state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). He has numerous publications related to the topic of China's overseas finance and green finance in general, and in particular he is the lead author of the China Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Investment Report 2025, published by the Griffith Asia Institute in early January 2026, in collaboration with the Green Finance & Development Center (GFDC) of the Fanhai International School of Finance (FISF), in Fudan, China. [Editorial note: a young family member can occasionally be heard in the background.] Questions we address are: Is surging investment a surprise? And why is this happening just as China's domestic economy slows? Why is oil and gas investment surging when domestic demand is so soft? Is Chinese investment in minerals and minerals processing mainly a "scramble for resources" or is it a development opportunity for the recipient countries? Is Africa's growth of 300% a signficant trend change that could continue? Deal size is up. What ever happened to "small is beautiful"? Expectations for 2026 Further reading: China Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Investment Report 2025 https://blogs.griffith.edu.au/asiainsights/china-belt-and-road-initiative-bri-investment-report-2025-2/
Transcribe →China's New NDC - Where do we go from here? - with Kate Logan, ASPI
Oct 600:26:58Tap to summarizeChina recently released its official NDC, or Nationally Determined Contribution document, laying out a commitment to reduce carbon emissions 'from peak' by 7-10% by 2035. The document was widely seen as disappointing. Now that the NDC and the initial reactions are out, it's time to take a step back and evaluate the bigger picture. What does this target really mean? What does the NDC signal about China's 15th Five-Year Plan, or for its major emitting sectors such as coal power or coal-to-chemicals? What impact did climate diplomacy or weakened/withdrawn climate commitments from other economies have on China's NDC? Is there a chance that China will use other policies to 'enhance its ambition'? Our guest today is Kate Logan Director, China Climate Hub and Climate Diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute. Logan is also a Fellow with ASPI's Center for China Analysis. Her work focuses on enhancing climate progress across Asia and in China especially, including by supporting the international community's engagement with China's climate agenda. She previously worked with ClimateWorks, and also in Beijing with the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs. Kate was one of the founders of the Environment China podcast, almost a decade ago, so she has a long connection to the Beijing Energy Network! Further reading: Kate Logan and Li Shuo, 'Beijing disappoints on ambition and misses a chance at leadership', Asia Society Policy Institute, September 2025, at https://asiasociety.org/policy-institute/unpacking-chinas-new-headline-climate-targets.
Transcribe →A Conversation with Our Podcast Host, Anders Hove - hosted by Calvin Quek
Sep 800:28:33Tap to summarizeIn this special episode of the podcast, Calvin Quek interviews the BEN podcast's longtime host, Anders Hove. Topics covered include how Anders came to China, his formative experiences working in China at the China Greentech Initiative, and how he got involved in the podcast. He even gives us his all time favorite episode (see link below). Calvin also discusses with Anders the topic of innovation in China's clean energy space, covered in a major paper Anders published last year at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES). This is a wide-ranging discussion, so here are a few links to help you follow along, based on things that were mentioned in the podcast: Anders Hove, 'Clean energy innovation in China: fact and fiction, and implications for the future', Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, 2024. https://www.oxfordenergy.org/publications/clean-energy-innovation-in-china-fact-and-fiction-and-implications-for-the-future/ 'Global Energy Interconnection: The Dawn of a Global Power Grid?' Environment China podcast, 22 December 2019. https://environmentchinapod.libsyn.com/global-energy-interconnection-the-dawn-of-the-global-power-grid The Chinese Money Behind Oatly https://thechinaproject.com/2021/08/13/the-chinese-money-behind-oatly/ China's Race to Tech Supremacy: A Conversation with James Kynge https://www.ft.com/content/535b3bd4-349d-45d2-8673-eeceefe3bb51
Transcribe →A Conversation with Our Podcast Host, Anders Hove - hosted by Calvin Quek
Sep 800:28:33Tap to summarizeIn this special episode of the podcast, Calvin Quek interviews the BEN podcast's longtime host, Anders Hove. Topics covered include how Anders came to China, his formative experiences working in China at the China Greentech Initiative, and how he got involved in the podcast. He even gives us his all time favorite episode (see link below). Calvin also discusses with Anders the topic of innovation in China's clean energy space, covered in a major paper Anders published last year at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES). This is a wide-ranging discussion, so here are a few links to help you follow along, based on things that were mentioned in the podcast: Anders Hove, 'Clean energy innovation in China: fact and fiction, and implications for the future', Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, 2024. https://www.oxfordenergy.org/publications/clean-energy-innovation-in-china-fact-and-fiction-and-implications-for-the-future/ 'Global Energy Interconnection: The Dawn of a Global Power Grid?' Environment China podcast, 22 December 2019. https://environmentchinapod.libsyn.com/global-energy-interconnection-the-dawn-of-the-global-power-grid The Chinese Money Behind Oatly https://thechinaproject.com/2021/08/13/the-chinese-money-behind-oatly/ China's Race to Tech Supremacy: A Conversation with James Kynge https://www.ft.com/content/535b3bd4-349d-45d2-8673-eeceefe3bb51
Transcribe →Green finance: what can other countries learn from China? - with Calvin Quek
Jul 2500:25:30Tap to summarizeGreen finance has been a hot topic for several years, and in some respects China is an overall leader in green finance -- at least in terms of the overall volume of green bonds and green loans. More green finance products are coming out at a steady stream. So what does all this mean for China's energy transition? Has it really helped, and is it contributing to greening China's investments abroad? In today's podcast, we talk to longtime Beijing Energy Network green finance guru Calvin Quek about these and other questions. Calvin is the Executive Director, Nature Finance, Oxford Sustainable Finance Group, and he is also Director at Transition Asia. Previously he was Senior Environmental Specialist at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Beijing. We specifically discuss a column Calvin authored together with Mathias Larsen, Research Associate at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs and Non-resident Fellow at the Green Finance and Development Center at Fudan University. The column, 'What other countries can learn from how China financed a green transformation,' was published in Environmental Finance and can be found here: https://www.environmental-finance.com/content/analysis/what-other-countries-can-learn-from-how-china-financed-a-green-transformation.html. Here's a look at the discussion: 2:00 What is green finance? What does it mean, in terms of incentives and disincentives for investment decisions or corporate decisions? 4:07 What are green bonds and how do green bonds in China differ? 5:27 What is the evidence about where funds from green bonds and loans go in China? (Short answer: we have limited data, and there is some evidence that funds don't necessarily go to green activities.) 6:45 What is a taxonomy? 9:20 Are green taxonomies or green finance instruments still going towards 'clean coal' or fossil fuels, and is that still a live part of the debate in China? (Short answer: yes.) 9:45 Did green finance play any role in China becoming the leader in clean energy technology? If so, how big? (Short answer: yes, but only a small role.) 12:30 Additionality: In general, financing costs for favored sectors and for SOE-built infrastructure is already benefitting from incredibly low costs of capital. So in that context, is green finance providing any additional incentive – at least in China? 15:00 If most green finance goes to SOE projects that might have happened anyway, does it help some marginal green projects around the edges, or does the huge state sector actually crowd out green finance for marginal projects and innovative new tech? 16:45 For green hydrogen or other technologies that are not close to economic viability on their own, green finance is not going to make the difference? 18:00 Role of green finance in China's overseas investments. 23:00 If green energy is more distributed, does that work against China's green finance model, based on large loans for big projects? Or can small be beautiful?
Transcribe →Young Professionals in Sustainability: Jialu Zuo (in Chinese)
Jul 1400:27:06Tap to summarizeIn the latest episode of Environment China's podcast, we speak to Jialu Zuo. Jialu is a sustainability specialist at China National Aviation Fuel Group (CNAF), focusing on Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and international engagement. She holds dual Master's degrees in Public Policy for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), jointly awarded by Tsinghua University (Beijing) and the University of Geneva (Switzerland). She earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations and Diplomacy from Renmin University of China. This episode is in Chinese and is produced by our Executive Producer Xiaodan Yuan (Joyce). 在环境中国最新一期的播客中，我们邀请到了左佳鹭 —— 佳鹭目前在能源央企做管培生，主要负责可持续航空燃料和企业的国际业务。她毕业于清华大学公共管理学院和日内瓦大学的可持续发展国际公共政策的双硕士项目。她曾在联合国贸易与发展会议担任可持续金融研究员，同时，佳鹭也是清华大学零碳未来青年协会的共同发起人。播客制作人：袁小丹。
Transcribe →China's Climate Path Amid Trade Tensions and Global Expectations
Jul 300:47:54Tap to summarizeIn today's episode of Environment China, we're doing something a little bit different, cross-posting a recording of a panel hosted by the Asia Society Policy Institute's China Climate Hub. This panel discussion explores China's latest emission trends, clean energy deployment, relationship with the global south, position at COP30, and impact of the U.S.-China trade war on the global energy transition. The speakers are Kate Logan, director of China Climate Hub at Asia Society Policy Institute; Lauri Myllyvirta, non-resident senior fellow of China Climate Hub at Asia Society Policy Institute; and Anders Hove, senior research fellow at Oxford Institute for Energy Studies' China Programme. Asia Society Policy Institute's China Climate Hub Director Li Shuo moderates the conversation. The original recording may be found in video format on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZWFTO2lO9w&t=1139s
Transcribe →