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A talk by Dr Yixian Sun: Challenges to operationalising fairness and equity in non-state climate action
A just net zero transition with ‘all hands on deck’?
This event has been organised as a casual seminar of Environmental Justice and Low Carbon Transitions Research Cluster (EJLC) at the University of Stirling. Feel free to come along for parts of the seminar and bring your lunch with you.
Dr Yixian Sun (Senior Lecturer, University of Bath), a world-renowned global environmental governance scholar, will deliver a talk about a just net zero transition in non-state climate action.
About the talk
Since the establishment of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, fair share, equity and justice have been always recognised as key principles in global climate governance. Over the last decade, many efforts were made to promote just transition at the international and national levels such as the Katowice Committee of Experts on the Impacts of the Implementation of Response Measures.
However, the policies and practices on just transition in transnational space – led by businesses, financial institutions, cities and regions and universities – remain less known and often even overlooked.
Given the importance of non-party stakeholders in driving a net zero transition aligned with the Paris goals, it is essential for non-state actors to embed the principles of fair share, equity and justice into their climate action. What are the opportunities and challenges for different non-state actors to operationalise these principles?
In this talk, Dr Yixian Sun will share his experiences and co-chair a related working group for the UN-supported campaign Race to Zero and reflect on these challenges to embed equity and justice in credible non-state net zero transition. He will highlight three types of challenges – definitional, data deficiency and wider institutional constrains – collected through stakeholder consultations and identify potential ways forward to better promote just and equitable net zero transition in transnational spheres.
Speaker: Dr Yixian Sun, University of Bath
Dr Yixian Sun is an Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in International Development at the University of Bath and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow.
As an expert in environmental governance and sustainable development, his research examines the changing role of emerging economies – especially China – in global environmental governance.
He is an associate editor of Global Environmental Politics and World Development Perspectives. He also serves as a member of the Expert Peer Review Group and a co-chair of the Working Group on Fair Share, Equity and Justice for the UN-supported Race to Zero campaign.