The third part of the CityU Sustainability Lecture Series, organised by Department of Asian and International Studies, was held on 12 February 2018. The panel discussion brought together four experts to tackle the provocative question of whether China is taking over global leadership on the environment.

In a wide-ranging discussion, the panellists largely concurred that the central government is committed to new environmental approaches, including advancing concepts such as ecological civilisation, pricing resources and offering compensation to less developed regions, while holding local officials accountable for environmental outcomes. Questions were raised, however, about the sub-par behaviour of Chinese firms abroad in meeting the environmental and social standards that they are expected to adhere to in China today.

Nearly 200 CityU students, secondary school students, scholars and practitioners attended the event. The speakers were Alexis LAU, Professor at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Justin WU, Head of Asia-Pacific for Bloomberg New Energy Finance; WU Fengshi, Associate Professor at Nanyang Technological University and WU Changhua, China/Asia Director of the Office of Jeremy Rifkin and founding CEO of TECONET.