China: pollution king or climate leader?
Is China the world’s biggest polluter or our greatest green hope? While the West is often caught in endless policy debates, China is moving fast. By building an ‘Ecological Civilisation’, Beijing is rewriting the global rules for going green. But behind the headlines of solar farms and electric cars, there is a complicated reality. In his groundbreaking new book, professor Alex Wang explores China’s ‘environmental authoritarianism’—a system where ambitious climate goals meet a rigid, top-down government. Can a one-party state actually solve the climate crisis faster than a democracy? Or does this high-pressure approach create a whole new web of social and legal risks? And what is the impact of China’s new course here in the Netherlands? Tonight, we dive into the heart of the Green Dragon. Together with Benjamin van Rooij (professor of Law and Society), Shiming Yang (lecturer in Global Political Economy of China), moderator Kate Mackintosh (Executive Director of The Promise Institute for Human Rights UCLA Europe) and Alex Wang himself. We will look at the power, the politics and the global impact of China’s green rise.
Together with Alex Wang UCLA School of Law professor, author of 'Chinese Global Environmentalism' Benjamin van Rooij Professor of Law and Society at the Faculty of Law, University of Amsterdam Shiming Yang University Lecturer in Global Political Economy of China, University of LeidenAbout the speakers
Alex Wang is a Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law and a Faculty Co-Director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. His research focuses on the law and politics of Chinese environmental governance. His work has examined Chinese climate policy, US-China environmental cooperation and competition, environmental bureaucracy, information disclosure, public interest litigation, the role of state-owned enterprises in environmental governance and symbolic uses of governance reform. Prior to joining UCLA Law, Alex Wang was a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) based in Beijing and the founding director of NRDC’s China Environmental Law & Governance Project. He worked with China’s government agencies, legal community, and environmental groups to improve environmental laws and strengthen the role of the public in environmental protection.
He is also a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the Council on Foreign Relations, a board member of the Environmental Law Institute, and a Co-Chair of the Faculty Advisory Committee of the California-China Climate Institute. Chinese Global Environmentalism is his latest publication. (Cambridge University Press, Elements in Global China, 2026)
Benjamin van Rooij is Professor of Law and Society at the Faculty of Law, University of Amsterdam. He directs the Center for Law and Behavior, also at the University of Amsterdam. He is also a Global Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine. He studies and teaches about the interaction between law and behavior. His past work looked at compliance, regulatory law enforcement and access to justice in China in a comparative perspective. He is section editor at the Journal of Business Ethics and founding convener of ComplianceNet, a global network of compliance scholars. He currently leads an ERC-funded research project about behavioral assumptions in the field of law. In addition, he collaborates with an interdisciplinary team to study how organizational culture affects organizational misconduct. He is the co-author of The Behavioral Code (Beacon Press 2021), and co-editor of The Cambridge Handbook of Compliance (CUP 2021) and Measuring Compliance (CUP 2022).
Shiming Yang is a University Lecturer in Global Political Economy of China at the Institute for Area Studies. She works in the Global Transformations and Governance Challenges Stimulus Program at Leiden. Yang’s research focuses on environmental politics and political economy, with focuses on rising powers and changing global orders on emerging challenges. In terms of environmental politics, she studies how the rise of the developing world and emerging powers have come to change the negotiation dynamics at various international environmental agreements, including ozone protection and climate change. She also studies domestic environmental regulation in developing countries and the distinct challenges they face in building a public-health based environmental regulation system.
The other strand of her research concerns international and comparative political economy. Her research ranges from growth models of individual countries to trade and supply-chains of, for example, hazardous wastes, short-lived climate pollutants, and Covid-19 vaccines. Here, too, she is interested in how emerging powers are shaping the international orders in issues areas that were previously dominated by industrialized countries.
Kate Mackintosh is Executive Director and Professor from Practice at UCLA’s The Promise Institute for Human Rights (Europe). She has had an extensive career in human rights and international criminal justice, holding senior positions across civil society organizations, academia and the United Nations. She served on the International Council of Experts on the Investigation of Crimes Committed in Armed Conflict in Ukraine, as well as the Advisory Group for the International Criminal Court Prosecutor’s Policy on Environmental Crimes. She represented the State of Palestine at the International Court of Justice in the context of the Request for an Advisory Opinion on States’ responsibilities in the face of climate change. From 2020-2021 she was Deputy co-chair of the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide.
About The Promise Institute for Human Rights
The European office of The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA School of Law is based at the Amsterdam Law School, with classroom space in The Hague. We advance cutting-edge legal research and analysis in international law and human rights, especially where these intersect with the urgent need to protect our planet. Current projects include the codification of ecocide as a fifth international crime, human rights implications of carbon markets and the protection of the environment during armed conflict. Through our presence in Europe we connect our students, faculty and research with academic communities and international institutions based here, creating opportunities for learning, dialogue and exchange.
