SILC Nodes – the newsletter of the STL Sustainability Innovation & Law Circle January 2025

The STL podcast ‘Legal Frontiers’ features a guest lecture delivered at STL Sustainability Innovation & Law Circle by Dr Gonzalo Larrea, Assistant Professor at Utrecht University School of Law. The COP29 outcomes target an expanded role for climate funds in delivering climate finance for developing countries. In his lecture, Dr Larrea provides a comparative analysis of climate funds such as the Global Environment Facility, Green Climate Fund & Adaptation Fund, focusing on their safeguards against negative environmental and social impacts on local communities and proposing reforms to strengthen these safeguards: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6SpcArl5ic3QUDOEJfwVHo?si=9690274f5e7444a9

At COP29 climate conference in Baku, STL Professor and SILC Director Stephen Minas participated in a panel discussion hosted jointly by the Department of Exchange and Cooperation of the Counselors’ Office of the State Council (国务院参事室交流合作司) and the Research Institute for Ecological Civilization (RIEco), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (中国社会科学院生态文明研究所). The event was on the topic “International Cooperation in New Energy Science and Technology Innovation” and was held at the China Corner pavilion at the COP29 venue. The keynote speech was given by Professor Zhuang Guiyang (庄贵阳), Deputy Director of RIEco. Other speakers included RIEco researcher Chen Ying (陈迎), Chinese Academy of Forestry chief scientist Lu Qi (卢琦), University of Zurich climate policy researcher Axel Michaelowa, Global Director, Energy at World Resources Institute Jennifer Layke, Associate Researcher at the Secretariat of the National High-level Think Tank Council of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Han Yu (韩昱) and Professor Minas. The discussion covered clean energy development and innovation in China and international cooperation, including through carbon markets and technology transfer. Professor Minas’ summary of the COP29 conference outcomes is at https://feps-europe.eu/much-ado-in-baku/ 

Photo credit: Rodrigo Bazzano

Professor Stephen Minas’ recently published book Climate Progress in the EU and the World was launched in Brussels, Belgium. The book, part of the Primer Series of the Foundation for European Progressives Studies (FEPS), discusses key issues in climate politics, the international community’s climate goals and EU climate law and policy.

https://feps-europe.eu/publication/climate-progress-in-the-eu-and-the-world/ 

Professor Minas was interviewed about the book for the FEPS Talks podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6ugEodAaZWYroXQi6ZHpeQ?si=4ffa633cc5b746dd

The Belt and Road Near-Zero/Zero Carbon Innovation Center was officially established in Shenzhen. Based on Shenzhen’s experiences in urban near-zero emissions, the Center will support Belt and Road-participating countries and regions in near-zero carbon technology solutions: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/pOGXtjJrAKJE86fpEKwNYw

Shenzhen’s Pingshan district has harnessed AI to create Shenzhen’s first ‘AI sanitation worker’, which can cooperate with human ‘colleagues’ and independently determine optimal cleaning paths: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/AA4jaIS8KwyPzw1zcSx5Uw

Guangdong province issued a ‘Plan to Advance the Construction of a Pilot Program for Product Carbon Footprint Certification in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area’. The plan, which responds to national-level guidance, aims to complete carbon footprint accounting and labelling for about 100 key products by 2030: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/_cCAWIkdjdpJ3iL-v3LO3w

The Guangzhou carbon exchange is cooperating with Macao on a range of initiatives to promote low-carbon development, including a mini-program to help individuals choose low-carbon options in their daily lives: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/j_LNCWBzzAJyRCKqZf6Tww

The GBA Green Finance Alliance was established in 2020. With participating organizations from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, it works on a range of themes related to green finance. These include the implementation of the China-EU common ground taxonomy in the GBA, international investment in climate projects in the GBA, building a green technology ecosystem and promoting green finance cooperation between the GBA and Portuguese-speaking countries, among other topics: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ZI3z55sURJdbbZmXdaNwZg

Guangdong province released a new energy-saving and carbon reduction plan: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/9_tuTPFCGZ_Acn1GuTey4g

In the context of enhanced GBA cooperation and policy coordination, Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology innovation Cooperation Zone has set 79 reforms to align its research management with Hong Kong and global standards: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/sv4kUtGQwnyUAK2jQxYJbQ 

Monitoring and data collection for the Guangdong migratory bird ecological corridor discovers newly recorded waterbirds in Zhuhai: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/bvejRqycZhtqa_uBM75axg