In March 2020, STL Assistant Professor Stephen Minas participated in an international workshop on the topic of ‘The EU and China in the Climate Regime: Exploring Different Pathways towards Climate Justice’. The workshop was hosted by the adelphi think-tank, GLOBUS (a Horizon 2020-funded project on ‘reconsidering European contributions to global justice’) and the University of Tübingen. While the multidisciplinary workshop was held in Berlin, Dr Minas and other presenters participated remotely, due to the pandemic.
The workshop sessions focused on climate justice and China; global climate justice in between the EU and China; civil society perspectives on EU and China in the international climate regime; and foreign policy perspectives. The workshop participants included scholars and practitioners based in both Europe and China.
In his presentation, Dr Minas addressed the issue of financing climate justice in the EU and China, and introduced recent and ongoing developments in sustainable finance law in both jurisdictions, including the proposed European Green Deal legislation and China’s ‘Green Financial System’ guidelines. STL student Loftus Zhang provided helpful research assistance.
Speaking after the workshop, Dr Minas stated: ‘This workshop highlighted the complex interactions between EU and Chinese policymaking and the prospects for a just transition to the climate-neutral economy that the world needs. Thanks to the organisers for making remote participation possible. It’s not business as usual, but collaboration and dialogue on the great challenges of our time continue, as they must.’
